Jurassicnatural: The Gang Goes Prehistoric
by Obsessive Explosion
Summary: Sam, Dean, and Cas are sent back to the time of the dinosaurs to recover an important ingredient for a spell, but even they could not anticipate how dangerous the trip will become.
1. Chapter 1

A/N - I don't know how often I'll have time to update this, but it's already entirely written so it'll definitely end up complete. Very Minor spoilers for season thirteen

* * *

"I have an idea," Gabe announced, waltzing into the bunker's kitchen. Sam looked up at him, eyes narrowed, and on the other side of the table he saw Dean do the same.

"What sort of idea?" Sam asked suspiciously. If he had learned one thing from the various interactions he'd had with Gabriel over the years, it was that his ideas could be good or they could be very, very bad. Sam couldn't get even the barest hint of where this might be going from just the archangel's tone of voice.

Sam supposed he should be glad that Gabriel was even talking to them, let alone coming up with strange, grand ideas. It hadn't been all that long ago that Gabriel had been a near-catatonic mute, and his recovery had been coming along strikingly well. But still, that didn't mean Sam wanted Gabriel...selling sex toys out of the bunker, or trying to make a mockumentary about Cas, or making all the furniture edible, or anything else along those lines. He thought he was fully justified feeling a bit wary of Gabriel and his ideas.

"No, this is a good one," Gabriel said, his tone of voice still leaving Sam anxious. "This one benefits you guys, I promise."

"Is it to teach us a lesson?" Dean asked. He was nervous enough that he had set the burger he'd been eating down on the plate.

"No, it's a real...you know I'm practically a god, maybe you should respect my ideas more, it's...nevermind. It's a way to recharge my grace, actually. Which last I checked is something you need."

"Alright," Sam said, still a little skeptical but more excited now that he knew this plan was not intended to be any sort of practical joke.

"It's kind of dangerous," Gabriel said.

"So's everything in our lives," Dean said. "Spit it out."

"Well, at one point in time, I had access to this special plant that recharges angel grace," Gabriel said. "But I...don't have access to it anymore."

"I like time travel," Dean said, and he was clearly into the idea enough that he had picked his burger back up. "Where are we headed? Wild West again?"

Sam tried to ignore how hopeful Dean looked at the idea of that. But it was kind of sweet.

Gabriel shook his head. "Farther back."

Dean's eyes widened. "Medieval?"

"Nope. Farther."

"Romans!"

"Nope."

"Dinosaurs?" Sam asked with a small chuckle. He was joking - he knew there was no way Gabriel would send them back that far.

But to his shock and horror, Gabriel nodded.

"Yep," he said. "Jurassic. 150 million years ago."

Dean's eyes popped so far open that Sam thought they might fall out of his head. "DINOSAURS? JURASSIC PARK? FOR REAL?"

"Hell yeah," Gabriel said with a smirk. "Go pack for Utah in the Jurassic. Deserts, rivers, conifer trees...big lizards. Oh, and find my little bro, tell him what's going on."

Dean was gone before Gabriel could finish the sentence. Sam sighed and followed, unable to shake the feeling that this trip was going to be even more disastrous than the fate of Jurassic Park.

* * *

One hour later, on the dot, Dean was standing in the entrance of the bunker with his baggage. Cas trailed in behind him, looking slightly wary, as though he expected Gabriel to jump out with a nasty surprise. Dean couldn't exactly blame him, not after the "snakes-in-your-face" incident that Gabriel had insisted would go viral.

"I got you a hat," Dean said as Cas peered around at all the doorways. The angel turned back to him, raising an eyebrow.

"Is it like the one you're wearing?" Cas asked skeptically.

Dean grinned. He'd managed to find a collection of vintage Indiana Jones-style hats in one of the back rooms, along with some photos of Men of Letters wearing them in a faraway jungle. This is what he'd spent the better part of the hour doing.

"Yeah," he said proudly, producing it. "I have one for Sam, too." Dean considered the angel, who was taking too long to voice his excitement. Without waiting for permission, Dean put the hat on Cas's head.

"Do I have to-"

"Yes," Dean answered firmly.

"Nice hat, Dean," Sam said from a nearby doorway, stepping into the room. Dean chose to ignore any possible sarcasm in the statement and threw a third hat to his brother.

"Got you one too."

"Goody."

Sam held the hat in his hands, looking a little annoyed but doing a good job of hiding it. Cas, seeing from Sam that he had at least some recourse for getting the hat off of his head, removed it and set it on the steps. Dean frowned in disappointment.

It took only another minute or so for Gabriel to emerge from the bunker. "A few last things," he said. "First off, you guys have two days. No more, no less. Nothing I can do about that. Second off, I'm going to be needing some of my main dude's energy for the spell."

"What?" Cas spluttered. He held up his hands, like he could physically ward off Gabriel coming at him and stealing his grace. He looked at Dean with wide, anxious eyes.

"Sorry," Gabriel said, shrugging. "Couldn't make it work any other way. No one knows better than you three exactly how much grace I have, and you must know it's not enough. Not for sending three passengers back 150 million years. Can't do it without you, bro."

"Fine, fine," Cas said, but he didn't look happy about it.

"Are you ready?" Gabriel asked.

"Um, yeah," Dean said, speaking for the other two. "Let's see some dinos."

He had a split second to register Gabriel reaching towards his forehead with two fingers, and then everything went black.

Dean woke up when the breath was knocked out of him. He took the briefest moment to collect himself, then opened his eyes.

* * *

The light looked...different. That was the first thing he noticed. Somewhere in the back of his mind he registered that it might be because the atmosphere was cleaner, or perhaps because there was no artificial light to muddy the glow that came from the sun. But that didn't matter. What mattered was that it was quite clear right away that Gabriel had...done it. They were in the Jurassic period. Or at least, it was very clear they weren't in twenty-first century Kansas anymore.

"Did it work?" Sam asked from somewhere to his right.

"I...I think so," Dean said, pushing himself into a sitting position with a slight groan. He didn't think he was injured at all, but he felt rather sore and worn out from his journey through time.

Dean turned his head towards Sam, who was also struggling to get himself up. He reassured himself that his brother seemed no worse for the wear, then looked around in confusion.

"Sam...where's Cas?"

Sam shook his head, beginning to look around for the angel.

"Cas!" Dean raised his voice, not wanting to shout too loudly and attract any dinosaurs. He took a second to appreciate that he'd just considered dinosaurs as a serious problem and continued searching for his friend. "Cas!"

There was a loud splashing from the river and a bedraggled head poked out of the water, spluttering.

"You okay?" Dean said, trying not to chuckle at the angel's miserable expression.

Cas stood up, water streaming from his clothes, and began making his way unsteadily to the bank. Luckily, the water only seemed to reach to about his knees.

"I'm fine," he said, a little angrily, reaching the bank and climbing out of the water. "Let's go as far as we can tonight."

"Spell didn't take too much out of you?" Dean asked, eyeing his friend with worry. Cas looked a little too pale for his liking.

"I'll be alright," Cas said impatiently. Dean shrugged, then glanced up to the treeline, looking for dinosaurs.

"This is the best trip ever," he muttered to Sam, then set off after the waterlogged angel.

* * *

Cas didn't want to admit it, but he was beginning to think that Gabriel's spell had drained him more than he'd initially thought. It hadn't been so bad at first, he'd just felt a little unsteady on his feet. But now, after walking for only a few minutes, he was feeling out of breath and dizzy. He wasn't supposed to feel like that.

And even without considering how weak he felt, he was cold. The river water had been icy, and Cas had landed in it so suddenly he hadn't been able to keep his footing. If you asked him, Gabriel had probably done it on purpose. The archangel enjoyed "teasing" him.

Cas glanced up ahead at the Winchesters. Dean had grabbed Sam's shoulder and was pointing excitedly at the horizon, where a scaly head was visible. Cas sighed. Dean didn't torment his younger brother….

Cas shivered, realizing that he was lagging behind, but unable to go faster. His legs were just so cold, and everything felt numb, and he was starting to shiver. All he really wanted to do was curl up in a ball on the ground and wait until he felt warm again.

"Cas?" Up ahead, Dean had turned around, and he and Sam were coming back towards him. Cas considered meeting them halfway, but after giving the matter a little consideration, he opted for just standing there and trembling.

"Hey, buddy, you sure you're okay?" Dean asked, sounding concerned.

Cas nodded mutely, balling his shivering hands up in the wet sleeves of his jacket.

"Hey, we can stop here if you want, this is probably as good a place as any, and we can make a fire to get you warm-" Sam started.

"No," Cas said firmly. He pointed to the middle distance, where there was an imposing wall of rock rising up out of the sandy ground. "We should get there at least. We need real shelter."

Cas could tell the Winchesters were also fully aware of their need for a safe space to spend the night, because neither of them argued. They exchanged a quick glance, initiating some sort of wordless communication that Cas was too tired and out of the loop to read.

"Okay," Dean finally said. "We'll get to the cliffs tonight, and then we'll make camp. But I want you to tell us if you need to rest. I don't want you collapsing on us."

Cas nodded.

"So you're good to keep walking?"

"Yes," Cas said, but his voice was alarmingly small.

The Winchesters started walking again, although this time both of them slowed their pace so they didn't move too far ahead of him, and checked back every few steps to make sure he wasn't falling behind. Cas could also tell that both brothers were on high alert, scanning constantly for any sign of a threat. Cas was grateful for this, because it meant he could let his mind relax some and just focus on replenishing his exhausted grace.

By the time the sun was setting, they had reached the base of the tall cliffs. It took a few minutes of walking along the bottom for them to spot a satisfactory cave - big enough for the three of them to sleep comfortably, and high enough that nothing would be able to see them too easily from the ground, but not so high that they couldn't get to it.

Cas was simply leaning against the sun-warmed rock and trembling by the time Dean finally pointed out the perfect cave, maybe twenty yards in front of them. Within minutes, they were safe inside, and Cas felt himself sink exhaustedly to the ground, still shaking.

"Take off your clothes," Dean commanded.

"What?" Cas asked, staring up at Dean. He wondered if he had misheard.

"They're soaking wet," Dean said. "You're just going to get hypothermia. Take everything wet off, and I'll get you a blanket. Then me and Sam are gonna go gather wood so we can make a fire."

"I should come," Cas said through chattering teeth, knowing even as he said it that Sam and Dean wouldn't let him. "A dinosaur might-"

"There's no way you can help us with a dinosaur right now," Dean said flatly. "C'mon, Cas, you're blue."

"Dean's right," Sam said, rummaging through one of their backpacks and producing a blanket. "Just...get warm."

* * *

Sam had been ready to leave ten minutes ago, but Cas had taken nearly that long to strip down to his boxers and wrap himself in the blanket, not to mention be convinced again and again that it was best if he stayed behind.

"Cas, if a dinosaur came at us, it would think you were a popsicle," Dean finally said, exasperated. "Mmm, frozen angel. Actually, come to think of it…."

Dean produced a canister of salt from his backpack and sprinkled it around the bemused angel, Sam watching with equal confusion.

"There," Dean said. "Dinosaurs can't cross the line. Stay behind it."

Sam quickly looked away, in case he started laughing and ruined Dean's scheme. There was no way Cas was going to believe this….

"Really?" Cas asked, and Sam could hear it in his tone. He was buying it.

"Really," Dean answered. He pointed again at the salt. "Stay."

"We'll be back soon," Sam muttered, fighting to keep himself under control. Before he could lose it, he fled the cave, followed quickly by his brother.

"Dude. I can't believe he fell for that," Sam said, as soon as they were out of earshot.

"I once convinced Bobby that a con man from Georgia stole and crashed his car," Dean said with a grin. "Getting a gullible angel to believe dinos are scared of salt is nothing compared to that. Now come on, let's find some firewood."

Sam gazed at the landscape spread out before them. Behind them were the cliffs, and further back still were mountains, soaring into the sky. At the base of the cliffs, where Sam and Dean were standing, desert stretched out in every direction, punctuated by small shrubs and the occasional thicket of conifer trees. The way they'd come, the trees thickened into a forest around the banks of the distant river.

"Head toward the trees?" Sam asked, and Dean nodded. Sam slung his backpack over his shoulders and they set off.

They spent the next twenty minutes or so trying to gather wood for a fire. It took longer than it would have if they'd been at home, because there were very few tall, healthy trees that could lend them more than a few scraggly branches. Before long, Sam had an armful of dried leaves that he could use to start the fire, but a worryingly small amount of bigger fuel that he could use to actually keep it going. So far, there'd been no sign of any dinosaurs at all. In fact, they only living thing they'd seen that wasn't a plant was some sort of huge bug, which they'd both steered well clear of once Dean had pointed it out.

"We should be heading back soon," Sam said absentmindedly, bending down to pick up a stick. "We have enough to at least get a fire started, and it's not a huge deal if we have to collect more fuel later. I don't think we'll be in any more danger if we go out at night. Maybe we'll be safer, actually. After all, dinosaurs are more active during the day, since they're cold-blooded. At least, I'm pretty sure they are-"

Sam looked up, realizing that Dean had stopped responding. Sam couldn't even hear his footsteps anymore. In an instant, all his senses were on high alert, and he quickly scanned the woods, looking for any sign of what might have happened to his brother.

Then he realized that Dean was standing only about fifteen yards away, perfectly still. The first thing that Sam noticed was that Dean had gathered way more wood than him, and Sam frowned. He hadn't realized it had been a competition, but he should have suspected.

Then he realized that Dean was clearly looking at something. He turned then, as if he could somehow feel Sam's eyes on him, not moving anything aside from his head.

"Sam!" Dean hissed. "Come here!"

Sam started to walk towards Dean.

"Quietly," Dean groaned softly, and Sam's footsteps automatically softened as he moved towards his brother.

"What is it?" Sam whispered, and Dean pointed wordlessly down into a small divot in the rocky earth, still hidden from Sam's eyeline.

"Dinosaur?" Sam asked, but before Dean had answered he was standing alongside his brother, looking at what was very, very clearly a dinosaur.

"It's a stegosaurus, man," Dean whispered breathlessly. "I've just been watchin' it-"

"Oh my god, Dean, get away from there," Sam said, voice rising with his panic. Dean was altogether too close to the dinosaur, and he barely even seemed concerned. Sam had a sudden image of it stomping on his brother, and then possibly eating him. He knew this kind of dinosaur wasn't a carnivore like the t-rex, but would it still eat some meat? How could science possibly know if a dinosaur would be willing to try a human?

"Sssshhh," Dean hissed. "It won't notice us if we don't move."

"Back slowly away," Sam insisted. "Before it sees us."

Dean rolled his eyes, but obeyed. The two of them began to move backwards, inch by inch. And then, the huge reptile's head swung towards them, and it made a low purr of warning.

* * *

"I told you to be careful," Dean hissed at his brother, and Sam glared back at him. "Stand very still, it'll lose interest."

Sam shook his head. "No, I think you have to make yourself big, loud, and scary."

Dean shot him a look. "That's bears, Sammy."

"It's large animals in general," Sam insisted, and before Dean could stop him, he leapt to the side and began waving his arms and shouting.

"SAM, NO!" Dean yelled, lunging for his idiot brother, but it was too late. The frightened stegosaurus turned and lashed out at Sam with its spiny tail, catching him along the side and throwing him bodily into a tree. Sam's body crumpled to the ground, and the stegosaurus lumbered off in the opposite direction, as fast as its stumpy legs could carry it.

"Sammy?" Dean breathed, and then he was kneeling beside his brother, holding his breath as he reached out to Sam.

"Ohhhh, you were right," Sam mumbled as Dean touched his shoulder, and Dean breathed out with a rush of relief.

"I have to get that in writing," Dean said with a small chuckle. "Can you sit up? Is anything broken?"

Sam began to push himself up, then stopped with a wince. Immediately, Dean was there, supporting his little brother's weight.

"What is it?" he asked, and Sam frowned.

"My ribs," he answered. "I think I broke a few."

Dean glanced at Sam's torso, giving it a cursory examination. There were two long scratches on his side from the stegosaurus spines, and if Sam said that he'd broken some ribs, then he'd broken some ribs.

"Okay, let's get you up," Dean said, in the same older brother voice he'd been using for over 30 years. Sam nodded and grabbed the outstretched hand Dean offered, and Dean pulled him to his feet.

Sam groaned softly, but aside from that made no complaint. Dean looked closely at his face. He was in pain, but he'd be alright, as long as Dean could get him back to Cas.

"Dude, you got attacked by a dinosaur. Know how many people can say that? No one!"

Sam actually seemed to brighten some at that. "Yeah, you're right," he said, putting a hand on the tree and resting for a second while he caught his balance. "Literally no one who has ever existed can say they got attacked by a dinosaur."

"Except the dudes from Jurassic Park."

"Well...they're fictional," Sam said. "So I don't think that really counts. I think it's just me."

Slowly, Sam pushed himself off of the tree, swaying slightly as his legs engaged to take his weight. Dean hovered carefully around him, ready to grab his injured brother at a moment's notice, but Sam seemed alright, just in pain. Dean watched as Sam put a hand to his side, and winced when he felt the slip of blood against his fingers. He twisted in a vague attempt to get a better look at the wounds, but the angle was awkward.

"How bad?" Sam asked, moving the tatters of his flannel aside, automatically turning to give Dean a better view.

"Not as bad as they could be," Dean said. "You got lucky. Even without Cas, I don't know that you'd need stitches."

"I can live with that," Sam said. He pressed a firm hand to his side in an attempt to slow the bleeding, at least until they could get back to the cave.

"You're okay to walk?" Dean asked.

"Yeah," Sam said, and while Dean could hear in his voice that he wasn't completely positive, he could also tell that Sam wasn't just lying to tough it out, and did believe that he could do it. Dean nodded slightly, satisfied, and proceeded to gather up the wood he had dropped when the dinosaur had charged Sam. No sense making this whole trip worthless, and they still really did need to get Cas warm.

They began to make their slow way back towards the cave where they'd left the angel. Within a few minutes, Sam's left side was alarmingly bloody, but Dean comforted himself with the knowledge that the wounds from the stegosaurus were just long, not particularly deep. The broken ribs were potentially more of a concern, but at this point Sam's breathing seemed completely fine, and Dean tried to force himself to relax. Relax...that wasn't going to be possible with his little brother limping beside him.

"Not much longer now," Dean said to Sam, the words for his benefit as much as his brother's.


	2. Chapter 2

Cas pulled the blanket tighter around himself and shivered harder in the chilled air of the cave. He stared at the line of salt encircling him, wondering for the hundredth time if he should cross it, if the Winchesters had been gone too long, if they needed his help. But as much as he hated to admit it, he could tell by the tremors running throughout his body that he wouldn't prove much use to them. He wasn't even sure if he could stand.

There was a scuffle of movement at the cave's entrance, and Cas raised his head warily. Then, he heard Dean's voice, and he relaxed.

A few seconds later, Sam came into view, followed closely by Dean, who was holding an armful of wood. Cas frowned. Sam seemed to be holding himself stiffly - was there something wrong with his side?

And then Cas saw the blood. He was on his feet in an instant, and then, just as quickly, was back on the rocky floor of the cave, cheek pressed into the dirt.

"Whoa, Cas, stay there," Dean's voice cautioned him, and Cas pushed himself slowly upright.

"Sam-" Cas began, but the younger Winchester was shaking his head.

"I'll be fine," Sam said. "The scratches aren't that deep."

"I can heal you," Cas insisted, and Dean nodded, moving forward with the wood.

"Yeah. After you warm up some. You're a friggin ice cube." He shot a look at Cas, the one that meant "you're annoying me, but only because I'm worried about you." Cas saw this look a lot.

"What happened?" Cas asked weakly, temporarily (but only temporarily) giving up on the idea of healing Sam. Instead, he looked towards the younger Winchester with worry.

"He was being a dipshit and a stegosaurus attacked him," Dean said with a small smile before Sam could volunteer any information. "It was self-defense."

"Oh, that's great, man," Sam said with a groan. "Stick up for the dinosaur."

"Big guy needs a friend, if scary Sasquatch people are yelling at him and waving their arms around."

Sam huffed in exasperation, and Cas felt a little better as the brothers squabbled amicably. If they were fighting about stegosauruses, Sam really must be alright.

Sam put a hand on the wall behind him and started to lower himself to the ground. He winced and exhaled sharply when the twisting movement put pressure on his wounds, but Dean was immediately there, helping support his weight as he breathed through the awkward position and sat back against the cave wall.

"Can I step outside the circle yet?" Cas asked. If he really wanted to move there wasn't much they could do to stop him, but he figured he might as well be polite.

Dean took his eyes off Sam for a second to eye Cas up and down. "Ummm, no," he finally said.

"What?"

"You're dead on your feet, Cas. Just sit there and let me get the fire started."

Cas sat down in a huff. He'd just wanted to go help Sam. Not try to heal him, just help him put pressure on the wounds without straining the muscles and bones in his chest, which were probably injured as well. But if Dean really thought that Sam would be fine, Cas supposed there was nothing he could do.

Cas watched as Dean busied himself making a fire just a few feet outside of the salt circle. Cas figured it was at least somewhat lucky that it had been him who had been dropped in the river and not Dean, because within a few minutes Dean had a fire started courtesy of the lighter from his backpack, and Cas didn't know where they'd be if they'd had to start a fire from scratch. As far as he knew, Dean didn't know how.

"Okay, come sit over here," Dean finally said, gesturing slightly at the small but crackling fire. "Get yourself warm."

Cas finally left the circle and settled himself down next to the fire, while Dean laid Cas's still-soaked clothes out next to him to dry. Dean was completely right, within only a few minutes of sitting next to the fire, Cas felt _far _better. His fingers tingled with pins and needles as they came back to life, but he hadn't realized how tightly he'd been clenching them and it felt good to let them relax. He had little crescents bitten into his palm from his nails.

"I'm ready to heal Sam now," Cas finally said. Both brothers immediately looked up at him suspiciously.

"You sure?" Sam asked. His face was pale, and there was some blood on his forehead where he must have accidentally smeared it.

"Yes."

Cas pushed himself to his feet, glad that he had no trouble getting his legs to take his weight. He walked to Sam and knelt in front of him, then gently touched two fingers to Sam's forehead.

* * *

Sam watched the angel carefully as Cas frowned, fingers still touching his forehead. Slowly, he felt a warmth diffuse into his being, localizing in his side. The pain in his ribs eased, and Sam could almost feel the wounds closing. He waited for the flesh to knit completely, but Cas paused, opening his eyes, looking white and shaken.

"What is it?" Dean asked sharply, beginning the hover, and Sam could see the indecision as his brother tried to discern which one of them he should be worrying over.

"Cas, you okay?" Sam asked, shooting Dean a "don't worry about me, I'm still fine" glance. Dean narrowed his eyes slightly, but must have decided that Sam was telling the truth, because he switched his gaze over to Cas.

"What's up?" he asked the angel, who'd gone a few shades paler again.

"My grace...it's drained more than I thought," Cas said, a little shakily. "I-I didn't realize how challenging it would be to send us back so far. Even something as small as healing Sam is...difficult."

"It's alright," Sam said hurriedly, before the angel could do something stupid like try to finish the job. "Really. You got most of it, I feel a little sore is all."

"I don't want to leave you vulnerable," Cas insisted, but his voice was trembling slightly, and Sam knew he'd already won the battle.

"I've fought through way worse with a lot more than a few scabs," Sam said with a chuckle, pulling himself to his feet with barely a pause. His side did feel much better. It was sore, yes, and he could still feel a dull ache in his ribs, but the angel really had helped.

"You should save your strength," Sam continued. "Recharge a little."

"Yeah," Dean finally said, reluctant though it might be. "We might need a little angel juice later."

"Are you sure?" Cas asked, getting to his feet and standing, a little unsteady.

"Get some rest," Dean told him, and Cas shook his head.

"I don't-"

"Sleep, yeah, we know. Just...humor us, okay?"

Cas nodded slightly and Dean shooed him back over to the fire, where the angel sat back down and wrapped a blanket around himself. Sam went to join him, but Dean pulled him back.

"Sam, you sure you're good? We're back in the Jurassic, which is fucking awesome, but it also means we can't exactly make it to an ER if things go sideways."

Sam nodded. "Seriously, Cas helped a lot. See for yourself."

Sam turned to give Dean a look at his side, and heard his brother make a small, satisfied sound in the back of his throat.

"You'll live," he proclaimed. "Now get some sleep."

"But we should keep watch-"

"I know we should keep watch," Dean said quickly. "And seeing as I'm the only one who's managed to not damage myself yet, I'll take first shift."

"But-"

Sam knew Dean well enough to know that you _could not _let him take first shift. He would stay awake through the whole night. Which was obviously unfair, but also left him bitchy and groggy the next day, which Sam knew was not something they could afford, not here.

Dean apparently knew what Sam was thinking. "I promise I'll wake you," he said. "Or, I'll probably get Cas, since he doesn't sleep anyways. But I won't stay up the whole night."

Sam nodded. He wasn't completely satisfied, but he supposed that was the best he was going to get. And Dean was right, he did need sleep. The "fight" with the stegosaurus had left him drained, even after being healed by Cas, and he knew he would feel better after getting at least a couple hours sleep.

Not that this was going to be comfortable. Sam, Dean, and Cas had each stuffed a thin camping pad into their backpacks, but there'd been no room for sleeping bags or anything like that. Luckily, the fire was keeping the cave bearably warm, but once the sun had set the air outside had grown dangerously cold. Sam didn't think there was anything he could do aside from pile on layers and lie as close to the fire as he could. He unrolled his thin sleeping mat and sighed.

"Goodnight Sammy," Dean said from where he was perched at the front of the cave.

"Goodnight."

Sam woke up to a cold hand shaking him. He automatically reached for the gun he had under his pillow, then realized not only could he not feel the gun he didn't even _have _a pillow. Then, slowly, he blinked his eyes open and looked around. Right, the cave. Dinosaurs. It was clearly the middle of the night, or possibly even the early morning, but he didn't have a good sense of how much time had gone by.

It was Cas who had woken him.

"It's time for you to keep watch," the angel said.

"Dean woke you up?" Sam said, somewhat surprised.

"No. But I took over when enough time had passed."

"Okay," Sam said, pushing himself into a sitting position, trying to shake the sleep from his mind. He looked over at Dean, trying to ascertain that he was actually asleep. His breathing was deep and even, and there was no way that Dean could fake that.

Sam breathed a small sigh of relief, glad that his brother had done the sensible thing for once. Knowing Dean, he'd still probably stayed at his post longer than his share, but at least he'd gotten some sleep. Sam turned his back to the fire and his face toward the entrance of the cave, waiting for morning to come.

* * *

There was something tickling Dean's nose. The sensation worked its way into his dream, something bizarre with talking broccoli and AC/DC, and he wrinkled his face. Then, his brain caught up with his body and Dean shot upright, lashing out at whatever was in front of him, wrenching something small away.

"Morning to you too," Sam said laughing, and Dean blinked sleep away to find himself tightly clutching a granola bar. Sam was a few feet away, going through the pack that held their food.

"Why can't you wake me up like a normal person?" Dean muttered, ripping open the bland and tasteless bar that Sam had apparently bought.

"Well, you tend to stick guns in my face," Sam pointed out. "Besides, my way is a little funnier."

Dean huffed silently and took a bland and tasteless bite of the granola. He looked towards the mouth of the cave, where Cas was perched, looking out at the landscape.

"He looks better," Dean said to Sam, mostly to take his mind off the bland and tasteless breakfast. It hadn't even been a day, and he already missed coffee.

"'He' can hear you," Cas remarked, turning to face them. "And yes, I feel at least somewhat better. I don't think I'll be able to regain my full strength until we return to our own time, but I can feel my grace regenerating."

"That's great," Sam said. "We were worried."

"Okay, so which way did Gabriel say we should go?" Dean asked. Cas peered back out at the desert, probably searching for landmarks.

"Towards a lake, if you can see that," Sam told Cas. "Dean, if you aren't going to eat the granola bar, give it back."

Dean started guiltily, realizing that he'd been slowly mushing the bar around, avoiding actually putting it in his mouth. "Hippie food, Sam," he muttered.

Sam frowned, pursing his lips into his patented "holier-than-thou" face.

"And don't tell me that it's 'healthy,'" Dean said emphatically. "It's disgusting. If you're tryin' to get me to eat that crap, find something that tastes a hell of a lot better." He tossed Sam the remaining granola bar and stood up, rolling his sleeping pad and clipping it back onto the backpack he'd brought.

A few minutes later, their small, makeshift campsite was completely packed up, Sam had pressed a bag of beef jerky into Dean's hand, and they were ready to move. Dean looked over the other two carefully, trying to make sure they were, in fact, alright to start moving. Sam looked okay, a little stiff and pale but nothing worse than they would experience after a run-of-the-mill hunt. Cas looked a bit worse off than Sam did (Dean supposed the spell was still tugging at his grace) but he also looked grimly determined, and when he started walking around his gait was steady.

All three of them hoisted their packs onto their backs, and before long they were headed towards what may have been a lake spotted by Cas in the distance, but may also have been nothing more than a smooth patch of rock or possibly a weird shadow.

"How long do you think it'll take us to get there?" Dean asked. As much as he liked the fact that they were walking through Utah in the _actual Jurassic Era, _he could not deny the fact that he simply didn't like hiking very much. There weren't many visible dinosaurs around, either because it was too early or because the three men were too loud, and he was already hot and kind of hungry and ready to sit down and break for lunch.

"I mean, probably a while," Sam said. "We've only been walking for about ten minutes."

Dean didn't respond. The gravel and sand crunching beneath his boots sounded oddly loud. Maybe it was because everything was quieter here. There was no...general hum of life the way there was in 2018. Also, no birds.

"I spy with my little eye-"

"No!" both Cas and Sam said in unison. A certain expression must have crossed Dean's face, because Sam at least had the decency to look somewhat repentant.

"At least...not yet. We're not bored enough. We need to save it."

Sometimes during long car rides where he and Sam knew they might get bored or start to fight, they saved the best games, the most reliably entertaining ones like "fuck, marry, kill", for when they were already a few hours in. It helped to have something to look forward to, and then they hadn't tired out their best games before they really needed them. Dean _supposed _he understood the logic of this, but he hated hiking enough that it didn't seem fair.

It seemed to take _forever _for them to finally reach the lake that Cas had spotted, but at least by the time they got close they could tell that it was, in fact, a lake. Not only that, but there seemed to be a non-zero amount of dinosaurs crowded around it, which was all that Dean had really wanted out of this day from the start.

Dean poked Sam in the arm, nodding excitedly to the herd (herd, there was a _herd_ of dinosaurs) around the lake. "Look, Sam, diplodocus!"

"How do you even know that?" Sam asked, shading his eyes and looking toward the lake. "The long-necked ones?"

"Well, some of them," Dean answered. "The bigger ones kinda look like they might be brachiosauruses."

Sam's eyebrow twitched in confusion, and Dean rolled his eyes. "You don't get a corner market on fun facts, nerd. Not my fault you skipped the dinosaur phase."

"Thank you, Dean," Cas said, a little tetchily. "But we only have about thirty-six hours to find Gabriel, get the plant, and make it to the 'extraction point.' I suggest we hurry."

"Extraction point?" Dean asked, grinning. "Nice."

"You made me watch 'Mission Impossible,'" Cas grumbled, starting off down the hill. "The title was misleading, the mission was entirely possible."

Sam opened his mouth to say something, paused, then shut his mouth and followed Cas. Dean swallowed laughter and joined the other two, walking towards the dinosaurs.

* * *

Sam followed closely behind Cas, turning around every so often to make sure Dean was still with them. His brother was absolutely ecstatic, grinning like a little kid and trying to turn in every direction at once.

"That one's smiling," Dean said excitedly, pulling out his phone and snapping what had to be the thousandth picture.

"I think it's eating," Sam said, eying the dinosaur dubiously. "Or maybe grimacing. Do dinosaurs have facial expressions? Maybe it's trying to decide if it wants to eat _us_."

"It eats plants, Sammy," Dean said absentmindedly, taking yet another picture. "So unless you've stuffed enough salads down your throat to count as a vegetable…."

"It could step on us," Sam muttered, rubbing surreptitiously at his still-aching side. "Cas, do you know where Gabriel is?"

Cas shook his head. "I'll have to ask them."

"YOU CAN TALK TO DINOSAURS?" Dean's head whipped around so fast that Sam was momentarily worried it would come off.

"Well, I can determine if one is an angel's vessel," Cas answered.

Dean paused mid-picture. "Hold on. Vessel?"

Cas sighed. "Yes. At this time, the angels were busy in Heaven, trying to make God's plan come to fruition. All except for Gabriel. He always was a bit of a free spirit."

"Are you...are you telling me that Gabe is _in a dino_? Gabriel is a dino? We're lookin' for _dino Gabe_?!" Dean's mouth had fallen open.

Sam didn't know what he had expected, exactly, but he knew this wasn't it.

Cas shrugged slightly, looking thoroughly unimpressed. "It's not like there were people around to inhabit."

Dean eyed Cas sideways, still clearly in a state of shock. "Cas, could...you be inside a dinosaur?"

Cas shrugged noncommittally, and Sam was drawn in despite himself.

"I didn't know angels could inhabit other species!" Sam said excitedly. "I didn't even think to research it, it just didn't occur to me...how do you get them to say yes to being a vessel?"

Cas looked around somewhat distractedly, clearly not finding this topic of conversation as interesting as Sam and Dean did. "You can tell," he said simply. "Now, my guess is that Gabriel would be in something big...probably something non-predatory…."

"Wait, Cas, have you ever been inside anything other than a human?" Sam asked. The idea of Cas inhabiting some other kind of lifeform had him absolutely floored.

But Cas ignored the question, striding quickly forward, eyes locked on a big group of dinosaurs gathered at the other end of the lake. Sam noticed that Cas had a subtle hand on the angel blade at his side, and Sam did the same thing, trying to anticipate whatever threat the angel saw and prepare himself for it.

"_Can you believe this_?!" Dean mouthed, catching Sam's eye.

Sam squinted at him.

"Cas as a dinosaur!" Dean hissed, quiet enough not to get their friend's attention. "Like...just imagine how cool that would be."

Sam nodded sincerely. He had to agree, Cas as a dinosaur would be pretty freaking cool.

It wasn't until Sam almost ran smack into Cas that he realized the angel had stopped. He had a funny, blank expression on his face, and Sam stared at him in confusion, not sure if he should be worried.

"Cas?" Sam asked cautiously.

But then Cas shook himself slightly, blinking sluggishly and forcing his eyes to focus on Sam. "I introduced myself to him," Cas said. "He's this way."

"To Gabe?"

"Yes," Cas said. "But this may be...a bit of a difficult situation. Remember, this Gabe has never met you before. He's never even seen a human. I told him I was an angel, but I'm not positive he believes me."

"Just do the eye glowy thing," Dean said dismissively. "Which one is Gabriel?"

Cas pointed to a towering dinosaur, one with a long neck stretching far above the others. It was a dappled brownish green, Sam thought probably for camouflage.

"That one," the angel said, and forged ahead. Sam and Dean followed Cas up to the dinosaur and followed Cas's suit as the angel gave it a respectful nod.

Then, for a rather long time, nothing happened. Cas seemed to be concentrating intently, and the dinosaur seemed to be...responding? Sam couldn't really tell.

After a few minutes, Sam could tell Dean was getting bored. His fingers were twitching, and he'd begun to fidget slightly. And if Sam was being honest, he was starting to feel jittery himself. Dinosaurs were all well and good, but there was only so long Sam felt the need to look at them.

Sam glanced to the side to say something of that sort to Dean, and blinked in surprise when his brother was no longer next to him.

"Fuck. Dean," Sam hissed, looking frantically around. Dean stepped out from behind the Gabriel dinosaur's leg, looking shaken.

"He's gonna step on you," Sam said urgently, edging a little closer to the tree-trunk sized limb. "Dean, come on!"

"Sammy," Dean said, voice quivering with barely concealed excitement. "Sammy, did you know that dinosaurs are _blue_ underneath?!"

"...What?"

"I think it's for camouflage," Dean said, and he was almost vibrating now. "Like, when smaller dinos look up, they see the blue and they think it's the sky, they don't know they're under a motherfucking giant."

Sam settled for confused blinking.

"This is the best day of my life," Dean whispered softly to himself, and he took out his phone again. Sam stepped forward to grab Dean and physically drag him to safety, sore ribs be damned, and found himself staring in awe at the Gabriel dinosaur's underbelly.

"Wow," he said. "It's really blue, huh."

"Yup."

"If the two of you are finished?" Cas appeared behind them, looking slightly annoyed. "I have a location."

* * *

Cas stared at the two humans in confusion. Dean was actually giggling, _giggling_, although Cas knew if he pointed it out Dean would instantly deny it. And Sam was smiling too, a real smile. Cas wasn't sure what was so exciting.

"Dinos have blue bellies," Dean announced, somewhat pointlessly, Cas thought.

"Yes," Cas answered. "I believe it's intended to be camouflage." At this, Dean poked Sam's uninjured side, smile broadening.

"Was it Gabe?" Sam asked, nodding towards the dinosaur.

"No. I chose a dinosaur at random and stared into its eyes for six minutes, just because I felt like it." Cas paused. "That was sarcasm," he added, just in case.

"It-it was," Dean said, a little stiffly.

"I enjoy sarcasm."

"Yes," Dean said. "I can tell."

"So what did you say to it?" Sam asked. He still looked a little suspicious of the whole endeavor.

"_Which human is which?" _Gabriel asked, directly into Cas's mind.

He had told Gabriel who he was, and of course Gabriel could see his true form so that hadn't taken much convincing. He had explained that future Gabriel had sent them, and this had taken a bit longer to explain but Dinosaur Gabriel had conceded that it did in fact sound like something he would do. Cas had then had to explain that Sam and Dean were actually intelligent lifeforms, and that they had also spoken to future Gabriel and had been sent back with Cas to help him. Gabriel had laughed at first, thinking Cas must be kidding, but Castiel had finally managed to convince Gabriel that people had been part of God's plan all along, and it would only be a few hundred million years before human beings would be all the rage.

Cas squinted at the Winchesters, trying to find differences between them that Gabriel would appreciate. Cas had had a hard time telling Dean apart from the other humans when he had first met him, and they still all looked disconcertingly similar to Cas, but he knew even he had much more experience identifying different humans than Gabriel did. Gabriel had never even seen a human before today. He didn't think Gabriel would appreciate, for example, that Sam was a bit taller, or had longer hair. Both of them must look impossibly tiny to a huge dinosaur, and Gabriel had likely never seen _anything _with hair before.

"_Sam was supposed to be Lucifer's vessel," _Cas finally communicated to Gabriel. "_Dean was supposed to be Michael's._"

Cas thought that even Gabriel would be able to see this, they were, after all, family. Sure enough, he felt Gabriel give him a small mental nod of understanding.

"Introduce yourselves," Cas said quietly to the boys. Gabriel already knew who they were at this point, but Cas thought it might appear more polite.

"To that dinosaur?" Sam asked, eyes wide.

"That dinosaur is Gabriel," Cas said patiently, still feeling like Sam perhaps wasn't entirely getting it, "so yes."

"I'm Dean," Dean said. "You're cool. I like that you're inside a dinosaur. You should tell my buddy Cas to go inside a dinosaur too."

Cas closed his eyes softly.

"_What did he say?_" Gabriel asked, and Cas relayed the information, carefully excluding the bit about him trying to inhabit a dinosaur. Gabriel nodded, stretching down his neck to Dean's level.

Dean froze. "Cas, he's looking at me, oh my god, a dinosaur is looking at me!"

"I'm Sam," Sam said awkwardly, and stiffened in turn as Gabriel cocked one huge eye towards him.

"_Okay, little bro. _Really _little bro. Hah. The plant is that way. Watch out for the Leviathans._"

It was Cas's turn to freeze. "_The...the what?_" This wasn't good at all.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N - Like the rest of the world, I am currently more or less trapped at home, so expect more frequent updates. Stay safe out there everybody!

* * *

"He said what now?" Dean asked angrily, for what was probably the hundredth time. They'd left Gabriel behind about twenty minutes ago, Cas looking far more unhappy than he had at the beginning of the conversation.

"Leviathans," Cas repeated miserably. "Apparently, the leviathans appreciate the plant's magical properties as well."

"So we're going up against leviathans now," Sam said blankly. "With angel blades, two handguns, and a sawed-off."

"Should have brought the chainsaw," Dean mumbled. He'd been expecting some kind of nasty twist, they were dealing with Gabe after all, but leviathans hadn't been it. "What do they even look like now?"

Cas shrugged. "According to Gabriel, large and toothy. I believe they look somewhat like other dinosaurs."

"Peachy," Dean said, glaring at nothing in particular. He kicked at a passing plant, hoping it would make him feel better. It didn't.

"So we're just gonna walk in there?" Sam said, and Dean could hear the panic creeping into his brother's voice. "Without a plan? With a half hour's warning? We need to regroup, we have to organize-"

Cas shook his head. "We don't have much time," he said simply, and Dean knew he was right. They were on a deadline, and as much as Dean loved dinosaurs, he didn't want to live with them for the rest of his life.

Sam looked at him, eyes widening into panic territory, and Dean forced his anger at Gabriel away. He could deal with it later, assuming they made it back. Right now, he had more important concerns.

"Don't worry so much, Sammy," Dean said, tossing Sam a big, goofy grin. "We never have plans. And when we do, they usually suck."

"That's not entirely incorrect," Cas said helpfully, but Dean didn't turn to make a face at him like he usually would have. He kept his eyes on Sam, who still looked like he was a few breaths away from a Sam Winchester Meltdown Moment.

"And I have a plan now," Dean announced. "Sneak in. If you don't run in there waving your arms and screaming, we can probably just creep right by 'em. They're big, we're little, they won't even notice us."

"That's actually not significantly worse than many of your plans," Cas said with no small amount of surprise, and Dean promised himself that the angel would pay for that comment later.

"We definitely stand a better chance if they don't notice us," Sam mused quietly to himself. "We can't beat them in a straight-up fight...god, I wish Gabriel had told us there were going to be Leviathans involved and we could have brought borax…."

"We should hurry," Cas interrupted. "There's a chance it'll take us more than one try to get the plant, and we don't have unlimited time before Gabriel will bring us back to the present."

Dean nodded. As much as he wanted to keep bothering Cas to take a dinosaur as a vessel so he could have a dinosaur friend, Dean knew Cas was right. They didn't have unlimited time, and they needed the plant if they wanted to replenish Gabriel's grace enough to get into Apocalypse World again.

"Gabriel said they were in a canyon," Cas said. "He showed me an image of it. There's only one very narrow entrance, so we'll have to head that way." Cas paused for a second, considering. "Well, there's other ways to get in if you can fly. But none of us can."

Cas sounded a little sad, and Dean looked at his feet. The angel very rarely mentioned his lack of wings anymore, but Dean wasn't surprised that it still weighed on him. Dean wondered if maybe Cas could take a flying dinosaur as a vessel. Like a pterodactyl. Dean thought those lived in the Jurassic, so it wasn't completely impossible that they could find one for Cas. Dean figured he could bring it up to Cas if they got the plant with enough time to spare.

It only took about another ten minutes of walking before Cas held his hand up. Immediately, Dean froze, and next to him, Sam did the same. Dean watched as Cas looked carefully around, then stood still and listened. Dean tried to breathe quietly, so Cas wouldn't miss anything.

"It's up there," Cas said, pointing at a small slash in one of the cliffs, maybe two hundred yards away. "That's the entrance we'll need to go through. I can hear...six or seven leviathans inside."

"How big?" Dean asked. Gabriel had revealed that they looked liked dinosaurs, but that still left a wide range of sizes. Gabriel had been huge, like building-sized, but Dean had thought he had seen some dinosaurs back at the watering hole that only came up to his waist, and taking out six or seven of those with an angel on their side certainly sounded doable.

Cas narrowed his eyes slightly, listening. "Big," he finally said. "Don't try to fight them. If they realize you're there, run."

"That's encouraging," Dean mumbled, then turned to Sam. "Maybe try to avoid the yellin' and jumpin' around this time, huh?"

Sam gave a small chuckle, and Dean grinned at him. "Okay, Operation Dino Heist is a go."

"That sounds like we're trying to steal a dinosaur," Sam said, a smile creeping onto his face. "It should be Operation Magic Plant Heist or something."

"That's stupid," Dean said dismissively, and Cas glared at them both.

"This conversation is stupid," Cas said firmly, then gestured to the cave entrance. "In case you don't recall, we have a deadline."

"Okay, okay," Dean muttered, rolling his eyes at the angel's back. "Man, someone's in a mood." Sam chuckled again, and they edged forward into the blackness of the canyon.

The cleft in the rock was tight, and pitch-black. Dean pushed his way through it, grateful that it wasn't too long of a passage. Cas didn't do well with small spaces.

Dean emerged on the other side of the tunnel, the murky canyon spread before him. Luckily, the three of them were hidden by a large rock that concealed the passageway they'd come through. Dean took the opportunity to peer around, getting his bearings.

The Leviathans' canyon was really more of a cave. The canyon floor was far wider than the opening to the sky at the top of the soaring rock faces, causing much of the long-dry riverbed to be concealed in shadow. That was good news for them, Dean thought. They could easily stay out of sight just by working their way around the walls.

And then a huge shape lumbered by them, and Dean felt any sparks of confidence he'd had sputter and die. Cas had said big, but the creature before them was at least thirty feet end to end, and although Dean couldn't make out much in the dim light he could see teeth. Huge, sharp teeth made for tearing viciously into its prey, curving dangerously from its powerful jaws. Even if he'd wanted to, Dean couldn't have moved a muscle.

Slowly, the leviathan passed them by, great reptilian eyes never noticing the three humans crouching in the darkness. Dean exhaled gently, unaware that he'd been holding his breath. Cas poked his head around the rock and nodded to the Winchesters, and agonizingly slowly, they left the relative safety of the boulder and crept into the shadows.

"Oh my god, was that a T-Rex?" Sam breathed.

"T-Rex lived in the Cretaceous period," Dean whispered back. "This is a torvosaurus."

Sam shot him a strange look, but didn't say anything else. They continued on.

After that, it was only another few minutes before things went wrong. They'd made it a fair way along the wall, even with their periodic pauses to avoid attracting attention. Dean, in the lead, looked around one last time and froze. There was a leviathan about twenty yards away, and Dean couldn't be sure, but from where he was standing, it looked like it was staring directly at him.

Dean stayed stock still, hoping that it was just his imagination. And then the leviathan cocked its head, and the light glinted off its pupil, and it was _definitely_ staring directly at him.

"Run," Dean said urgently. "Run, run, get out of here _now!_"

Instantly, thank god, Sam and Cas had turned and were sprinting towards the narrow opening they'd entered through. Dean was only a few steps behind them. He could hear his heart pounding out of control in his ears, in synch with the impact of his footsteps, his shotgun banging against his leg. He didn't look back.

Sam made it into the crack in the rock, and Dean tried to force his legs to go faster. His heart was hammering so hard he could feel the vibrations throughout his entire body, and now he was almost there, he was so close.

"DEAN!" Sam's voice tore through the air, sounding utterly terrified. Dean felt a chill go through him, but before he could find Sam and see what was wrong, an agonizing pain ripped its way into his body.

It hurt too bad to scream. All Dean could do was gasp weakly, and after the first breath, even that didn't work too well any more. He looked down, still trying to force himself to inhale, and saw reptilian skin, scales and teeth and blood, blood everywhere. Too much blood.

Dean had died before, he'd been ripped apart by hellhounds, but this was worse. He couldn't feel his legs, and his world was reduced to his shattered bones and shredded flesh. He could dimly hear Sam screaming, somewhere, but he couldn't make out the words. Everything was going blurry around the edges, and Dean was desperate to hang on but he was slipping. He was slipping, and he knew that if he fell into the blackness, he wasn't coming back.

* * *

Sam had gotten to the entrance of the canyon first. He had a head start, and the longest legs of the three of them. He threw himself through the narrow gap, too small for the huge leviathans to get through. Then he had shoved a hand out to slow himself down, and skidded to a stop so fast he almost fell.

Before his brain had caught up with his body he was turning back towards the canyon, and what he saw made his blood freeze. Dean was a few steps behind, still sprinting for the exit, but there was a leviathan _so close _to him, and all Sam had time to do was scream Dean's name.

Even though he knew it was too late, Sam ran back into the canyon. The leviathan picked Dean up in its huge jaws and Sam heard a terrible _crunching _sound, but he didn't let himself think about it, he didn't let himself look. He felt numb, almost detached. And he knew he could only stay that way as long as he didn't actually see Dean.

"Hey!" Sam yelled, jumping up and waving his arms. "Look at me!"

A very small part of Sam saw the irony in the situation. He had been very explicitly instructed by Dean not to do exactly this, just twenty minutes before. But then the leviathan dropped something from its mouth that looked like a hunk of raw meat, and Sam felt his stomach turn over.

Out of the corner of his eye, Sam saw a flicker of movement. Cas was crouched in the shadows, half-hidden by a boulder. He was clearly trying to get to Dean, or at least, what was left of him. But he wouldn't be able to do that unless the leviathan moved farther away. And for that, Sam needed to be a better distraction.

"Hey!" Sam yelled again. He took a few steps backwards, trying to stay aware of where the exit to the canyon was. He didn't have a lot of time to make this work. "Why don't you pick on someone your own size?"

The leviathan made a confused sort of huffing noise, and Sam saw it take a few steps away from Dean's body. Sam bent down, picked up a rock, and threw it at the leviathan. Sam didn't have the best aim at the moment, not with a moving target like this, and under insane amounts of pressure, but he still managed to hit the leviathan in the face, somewhere in the vicinity of its left eye. The leviathan growled, and took a step closer to Sam.

Sam had a sudden, panicked thought that the leviathan was going to step on what was left of Dean. That would kill Dean for sure. If Dean hadn't already...if he wasn't….

"You should not mess with the Winchesters!" Sam yelled. "We're...we're dangerous! Even to dinosaurs!"

Sam threw another rock. The leviathan roared, and it began lumbering away from Dean, towards Sam, but Sam didn't even think about that. He locked eyes with Cas, who gave a tiny nod. The angel crept out from around the boulder and began making his way towards Dean, who was lying terribly still on the ground.

Sam tore his eyes away from Cas and ran back, away from the leviathan, away from the exit to the canyon. He ducked back into the shadows, then behind a rock. The leviathan growled, sounding confused, and Sam peeked out just as the monster began to swing its head back towards Cas and Dean. Quickly, Sam darted across the cave floor and jumped back into view, waving his arms again.

The huge reptile was looking at him now, and Sam backed up, searching frantically for Cas and Dean. Cas stood up, holding Dean in his arms, but there was so much blood _so much blood_, even Cas was already soaked in it, and Sam felt his knees go weak. Sam wanted to go to him, he'd do anything if he could be by his brother's side….

But he couldn't, not if he wanted Dean to have even the barest chance at survival. Sam caught Cas's eyes, trying to ignore the way Dean's head was hanging awkwardly from Cas's arms, and nodded his head towards the entrance.

"Get him out of here," he mouthed, hoping Cas would understand. "I'll distract them."

Cas hesitated for a fraction of a second, then ran towards the entrance. It took every ounce of strength Sam had to stop watching his brother limply bouncing in the angel's arms _oh god he wasn't moving was he dead_ and turn his attention back to the huge dinosaur that very much wanted to kill him. Because it couldn't kill him. Dean was going to survive, because he _had to_, because Sam couldn't face the alternative, and so Sam had to survive too, he wasn't going to leave Dean either.

"He's gonna kill me," Sam whispered, and sprinted toward the leviathan.

* * *

Cas ran as fast as he could, Dean lying awkwardly in his arms. He tried not to think about the way Dean's body was _shifting_, how things that really shouldn't be moving were twisting and crunching together as he ran.

Sam's distraction had gotten them out of the cave, but Cas didn't know if the leviathans were coming after them. He certainly wasn't going to stop right outside their lair and try to heal Dean, and waste the chance Sam had won for his brother, slim as it was.

And it was a _very_ slim chance, Cas knew. His grace was still low, the sustained time travel draining it constantly. And Dean...Cas could already see that without an angel's help, Dean was going to die.

Dean breathed another shallow, rattling breath, and there was a horribly long pause before his next inhale.

"Breathe," Cas ordered him, continuing to run. "Again, do you understand me? You have to _keep breathing._"

Dean inhaled slowly, and Cas winced at the rasping wheeze accompanying it. His next exhale brought blood bubbling from his throat, spattering his lips. Another small exhale, and his lips were stained red, a trickle of blood on his chin.

Cas tried vaguely to move Dean into a more comfortable position. He shifted him slightly so his head was bumping against Cas's chest instead of hanging over the back of his arm. He tried to splay his hands out along Dean's shoulder and knee, to give him more stability. He wasn't sure if it helped, or made any sort of difference at all. In fact, Cas knew Dean's spine could very well be broken so he had perhaps made it worse.

Cas knew the next few minutes were critical. It was coming down to the wire now. He didn't want to stop, because he knew the leviathans could still be behind them and then all of this would be for nothing. But he also knew that the window where he _could _stop, and still save Dean, was rapidly closing. Dean's face was a pale, waxy color, his eyes half-lidded but clearly unseeing. Cas hadn't looked too closely yet at the wounds on Dean's chest, but even as he ran he could tell that the blood flow was _slowing, _which was normally the ideal situation but in this case very much was not. If the blood flow from Dean's shredded torso was getting slower, it meant Dean was running out of blood.

"Just hold on another second," Cas whispered. They were almost to the trees. Once they got to the trees, everything would be better. The leviathans were so big, they wouldn't possibly follow them into the trees. There's no way they could track them in there. They could find shelter, they just needed to make it a little farther….

Cas couldn't tell if Dean was breathing anymore. The blood was still leaking steadily from his mouth, but that wasn't the same. Cas looked for telltale bubbles in the blood, which was normally a bad sign because it meant there was blood in the lungs but here would simply mean he was still _breathing, _and that was all that Cas wanted. But there was nothing. Dean was very, very still.

"Come on, Dean," Cas whispered. And then, abruptly, he realized that continuing to run was useless. If he stopped now, maybe they would immediately be caught by a leviathan. But if he didn't, Dean would certainly die. Assuming he wasn't dead already. Cas took another few stumbling steps forward and set Dean at the base of the nearest tree. With a sick feeling growing in his gut, he laid a hand on Dean's forehead and prepared to find out just how bad the damage was.

The answer was very, _very_ bad. Ordinarily, Cas would have no trouble healing injuries even of this magnitude, but ordinarily, Cas's grace wasn't powering an extended stay in the Jurassic. Dean's spine was broken, his organs were crushed, his lungs were punctured, and his ribcage was shattered. And...he'd just stopped breathing.

There wasn't any more time to think. Cas reached out with his grace, forcing himself to focus on the worst of Dean's injuries. First his spine, if he didn't heal that Dean would never walk again. Next came the damage to his internal organs. Cas faltered, feeling his grace drain, the weakness he'd just gotten rid of creeping back. But that didn't matter, Dean was dying, and Cas would heal him until he couldn't anymore.

And then, sooner than Cas expected, his grace was trickling dry and blackness was fuzzing the corners of his vision and he pushed _just a little harder_ and that was when the blackness rushed in like a tide and he collapsed.


	4. Chapter 4

Sam couldn't breathe. It wasn't from the run through the desert, or from the terror that he would look over his shoulder and find a leviathan chasing him down. It was because he didn't know if, at this moment, Dean was breathing. And thinking about that caused his chest and lungs to burn far more than the threat of any monster could.

Then, up ahead, Sam saw two figures lying on the ground, sprawled underneath the branches of a massive conifer. He lengthened his stride, heart pounding in his chest, hoping against hope that _somehow,_ Dean would be okay.

But as he got closer, as he saw the blood, the less likely that seemed. Sam could feel tears springing to his eyes, and that could be from the desert sand whipping at his face, but he doubted it. And then, before he knew it, before he was ready, he was skidding to a stop beside Dean's body, barely registering Cas crumpled on the ground next to him.

"Dean, no," Sam moaned, falling to his knees beside his brother. Dean was so still, and the wounds in his chest were gaping, slowly oozing blood, but...Dean was breathing.

"Thank you, Cas, thank you," Sam said fervently, realizing that Cas must have spent the last of his strength healing Dean as much as he could. Dean was still alive. He wasn't out of the woods yet, not by any means, but he was breathing, and a few minutes ago Sam had thought that was nearly impossible.

Sam reached out and gently brushed Dean's blood-soaked hair back from his forehead, until it was spiked back up in its usual position. Dean's skin was warm, once again reassuring Sam that his brother was still alive.

Sam pulled his hand back, ready to turn his attention to the bite wounds on Dean's chest, then stopped. Dean's eyes had fluttered partially open.

"Dean?" Sam said in shock, and Dean blinked once, twice, three times, and focused on Sam.

"Sam...my," he whispered, pain evident in his voice. "Not...dead."

Sam wasn't sure which one of them that was supposed to be referring to. "No, none of us are dead, Dean," he said, still a little unable to believe it. "Cas got you out. He healed you a little, I think."

Dean's hand gave a sporadic twitch by his side, and Sam grabbed it tightly before Dean could reach for him and aggravate...whatever injuries remained. Dean was too weak to grab back at all, but his fingers seemed to relax slightly in Sam's grasp, so Sam kept holding on.

"Are you in a lot of pain?" Sam asked. He figured the answer would be yes, but he knew sometimes people with terrible injuries felt no pain at all, as a sort of survival mechanism. There was also a chance that Cas had done something to help with that.

Dean's eyes were closed, his lashes casting small shadows on his cheeks. His breathing was still ragged. Sam couldn't tell if he had passed out, or if he was just resting.

"Dean?" Sam questioned.

At the sound of his name, Dean's eyes fluttered open again. He wasn't quite looking at Sam, he was probably too drained to get his vision to focus properly. He didn't respond to the question.

"Dean?" Sam repeated. He knew, he _knew _he should really go check on Cas as well, but he also knew he wasn't going to be able to tear himself away from his brother. "Are you in pain still?"

Dean made a small sound in the back of his throat, and Sam started to panic, wondering if the pain had gotten so intense just lying there that Dean couldn't hold back a whimper, or perhaps he was about to be sick and Sam should try to turn him onto his side. But then he realized that Dean was actually laughing. He blinked once, and his eyes came slightly closer to focusing on Sam.

"I'll take that as a yes?" Sam said. He still felt on the verge of panicking, but there was no reason to freak Dean out so he tried to keep his voice light and calm.

"Yes," Dean said weakly.

Sam's free hand hovered over Dean's body, shifting scraps of fabric to get a better view of the torn skin beneath, trying to be as gentle as possible to not cause Dean any further pain. Even with whatever healing Cas had done, the wounds were still...bad, that was for certain. The leviathan's teeth had shredded Dean's skin, and from Sam's initial estimate it looked like his brother was going to need about seven million stitches to keep himself together. It would be a miracle if any of Dean's ribs at all were still intact. Dean's right arm was sticking out at a funny angle, and Sam thought there was some damage to that shoulder as well. Sam could only pray that Cas had healed Dean's spine, because he didn't think there was any chance it hadn't been severed. Whatever other damage Dean had Sam couldn't see, and he couldn't even begin to guess at. If Dean had a punctured stomach or lung, there was really nothing Sam could do and he would be in for a very slow and painful death.

Dean's eyes flickered open again, and he slowly managed to focus on Sam. "What...now?" he asked softly.

Sam considered the question. Obviously, he needed to get Dean back to their campsite, where he'd foolishly left the first aid kit. Damn it, he should have _known_ one of them was going to end up needing it. But Cas was still unconscious, and Sam couldn't carry both of them.

Come to think of it, he didn't think he could even carry Dean. There was clearly no way that Dean could walk (even if his spine was intact, which was something Sam could barely even stand to think about). Occasionally, Sam had had to carry Dean, when he was simply unable to walk and they were in a hurry. But he could only manage it for fairly short distances, and only if Dean could hold onto his shoulders. In this situation, Sam thought Dean might be too badly injured to handle even that. And all that notwithstanding, Sam was still injured himself. He hadn't noticed the sharp ache in his ribs when he was running, but now that he'd stopped, now that he knew Dean was alive, every inhale and exhale was painful. Sam thought that if he tried to carry Dean, he might end up dropping him, and that was the last thing his wounded brother needed.

Sam glanced down, and Dean was still blinking slowly at him, waiting for an answer.

"We wait for Cas to wake up," Sam said, finally. "Hopefully it won't be too long. It's a long way back to the cave, and...I don't know if I can carry you the whole way."

Sam waited for Dean to give him a stubborn look, or glare, or even grin slightly and make some offhand joke about Sam calling him fat. But Dean just nodded, once, and let his eyes close again. And that, more than anything, was what really worried Sam.

* * *

Dean's hand hurt. Nothing like as bad as the rest of him, of course. But at this point, Sam had been squeezing it steadily harder for several minutes. Dean didn't mind, it meant he knew that Sam was there.

But he knew his brother, and it also meant that Sam was worried. Well, more worried than usual, anyway. Sure enough, when he managed to focus his eyes long enough to look at Sam's face, his eyebrows were drawn together, and his jaw was set in the particular way that Dean knew meant there was something Sam just couldn't get out of his head.

"What issit," Dean said, slurring his words together slightly. It was easier to talk if he didn't have to breathe too much.

Sam hesitated, Dean's hand gave a sharp twinge as he squeezed harder, and then he hesitated some more. Dean waited patiently. He couldn't really do anything else.

Finally, Sam spit it out. "Dean...Dean, can you feel your legs?"

Dean thought hard. So far, he'd really been focused on _not_ feeling more than anything else. But now that Sam mentioned it, he remembered the leviathan biting down, he remembered the sharp burst of pain, and then…nothing, numbness.

Dean felt a chill of fear run through him and concentrated very hard on his lower body. He tried wiggling a toe, just a toe, and he almost cried with relief when he felt it respond.

"Dean?" Sam said urgently.

"I can move 'em," Dean mumbled.

"Can you show me?"

Dean thought about the staggering pain in his torso that seemed to worsen with each breath. "I'd...rather not."

Sam's face twisted slightly, but to Dean's eternal gratitude, he did not push. Dean was relieved - he thought if he had to move his feet or legs enough for Sam to see, he might actually pass out. Dean let his eyes slip closed again. He didn't think he was in danger of falling asleep, he was simply in too much pain for that. But he was so exhausted that even keeping his eyelids pried open seemed to be expending precious energy he couldn't afford to waste, and anyways, the fact that they refused to focus was giving him a headache.

"Dean?" Sam said softly after a few moments. "You awake still?"

"Yeah."

"I'm gonna...I'm gonna go check on Cas. I'll be right here. Right close by still. And then as soon as I've made sure he's...okay, I'll come back."

Dean tried to nod, but his neck and shoulders were too sore and he gave up with a hiss of pain. "Yeah," he finally muttered.

The pressure on Dean's hand disappeared, and the instant relief he felt as feeling finally returned to his fingers was soon replaced by an almost embarrassing sadness that he could no longer feel Sam holding on. He saw Sam's blurry form retreat from his field of vision, and he closed his eyes again

He heard Sam rustling slightly as he knelt next to Cas, then a faint sound that he was pretty sure was Sam shaking the angel's shoulder.

"Cas?" he heard Sam mutter. "Cas, come on, wake up buddy-"

"How...is he…?" Dean managed, alarmed at how much energy stringing together even three words seemed to take out of him. "Alive?"

"Yeah," Sam said. "Yeah, his heart's beating and his breathing is fine. I actually think he might be coming round, he keeps moving away from me and he blinked a bit when I touched him. It's just...taking a while."

Dean grunted slightly, to indicate that he heard and understood. He wished he could pass out, that seemed easier than trying to deal with the mounting pain for even a second longer. But he knew that would scare Sam, so he swallowed hard and just tried to focus on his breathing.

"Do you remember him healing you?" Sam asked.

Dean cast his mind back. He had a vague image of Cas holding him in his arms. He remembered thinking that he was dying. He'd died a few times before, so he was familiar with the feeling. When it was really coming there was a sort of...slipping, and after that it was not a matter of willpower or luck or a few well-placed stitches, there was simply nothing that could be done. He'd hit that point, and then...fainted, he supposed, and then Cas must have healed him some and he'd woken up with Sam kneeling next to him. He didn't remember anything after being carried.

"No," Dean finally said, hoping that wouldn't worry Sam too much. It would certainly be less alarming than telling Sam that he felt himself die.

Dean heard a small sound and another rustle, and Sam's voice.

"I think he's waking up," Sam said, and Dean dragged his eyes open and saw two blurry shapes. The tan-colored one on the ground was moving slightly, but Dean's vision was wavering too much to let him make anything out. He shut his eyes again, feeling suddenly nauseous. Over by Cas, he could hear Sam murmuring. Dean focused on his brother's voice, breathing as evenly as he could, trying to ride out the pain.

* * *

Someone was talking to him. Cas could make out the words dimly, as if he were underwater. Whatever they were saying, it didn't quite make sense. He concentrated hard on the words, his head pounding as he tried to make out the meaning.

"...you okay? Cas? Dean's here with me, he's awake-"

Dean. _Right,_ Cas had managed to get him out of the canyon, he'd been on the edge of death, and Cas had healed him. Cas had healed him, but he hadn't finished.

Cas's eyes shot open and he lurched upright, so quickly that a blinding pain lanced through his head and his vision seared white. He gasped, bringing trembling hands to his pounding head.

"Cas?" Sam asked, and Cas felt hands grip his upper arms, holding him up. Sam sounded distressed, his voice on the edge of trembling.

"Dean?" Cas asked, unable to say much more at the moment. Even that one word had turned the pain up a few notches, making him wonder if he was going to throw up.

"Hey...Cas." Dean's voice was weak, shaking slightly. "Thanks."

"You're in pain," Cas said, forcing himself to open his eyes, looking past Sam's worried expression, towards Dean. "I wasn't able to fully heal you."

"Not dead," Dean pointed out, masterfully concealing a gasp of pain that no one but Cas or Sam would have been able to pick out.

"Hey, Cas, I'm sorry to ask this, but what exactly did you heal?" Sam asked, the worry still evident on his face. Cas focused on him and blinked, trying to process Sam's question.

"His spine was broken," Cas finally said. "I healed that, along with his internal organs. They were...damaged. I also tried to at least partially close some of the deepest wounds. Dean shouldn't be suffering from internal bleeding, and his lungs are intact. For now, he's not in any immediate danger."

Sam breathed out with a rush of relief that made Cas feel slightly better about not being able to fully heal Dean.

"How do you feel now?" Cas asked. He tried to stand up and move towards Dean, but Sam kept his hands firmly on Cas's shoulders, holding him in place.

There was a brief hesitation. "I'm...alright," Dean said finally.

"I can do more," Cas said, pushing at Sam's hands, trying to get him off. "I could heal the ribs, maybe do something to manage the pain…."

"How many ribs did he break?" Sam asked, sending a worried glance back at Dean.

"Twenty-four."

That got Sam's attention, and he turned back towards Cas, blinking in confusion. "Cas, humans only have twenty-four ribs."

"Yes," Cas said. Sam seemed to be slightly underestimating how serious and extensive the injuries still were. He seemed to think Dean was still alive because he had caught something of a lucky break, and not because Cas had brought him back from the very real brink of death.

"He broke all of his ribs?" Sam asked, looking back at Dean. Cas looked at Dean too. He was lying flat on his back, blinking up at the sky. Cas couldn't tell how much he was still tracking the conversation.

"I may be able to heal at least a few of them…." Cas tried, even though he was not entirely positive that this was true.

"No," Sam said quickly. "Please don't, Cas, we need you to keep your strength up. You're going to have to, uh, carry Dean back to the cave, I would, but I'm not strong enough to-"

Cas nodded. As much as he hated to admit it, Sam was completely right. There was no way Cas could heal Dean further and still carry him back to the cave, and there was no way he could heal Dean enough that Dean would be able to walk on his own. He might be able to try again later, but for now, he couldn't risk passing out again.

"Let me up, Sam," Cas said calmly.

"Oh." Sam hadn't seemed to realize he was still holding onto Cas's arms, and he let go. Cas dragged himself to his feet and stumbled over to Dean, dropping down to kneel by his side. Dean really did look bad, face so pale Cas could have counted every freckle, his chest and arms both streaked with blood.

"It'll hurt for me to pick you up," Cas informed him. "All of your ribs are broken. We really shouldn't be moving you at all."  
Dean didn't say anything.

'I'll put you down whenever you want," Cas added. "To rest. Just...tap my arm if you need a break."

Dean's eyes focused hazily on Cas, and he still did not speak. Cas considered slightly. He did not know if Dean had the physical ability to tap Cas's arm.

"Maybe just...say something if you need to stop. Or make a small noise." Cas paused. "I'll try my best to be gentle."

"Okay," Dean whispered. He closed his eyes again, and Cas ever-so-carefully slid an arm under Dean's shoulders, raising him slightly off the ground. A choked-off whimper slipped from Dean's lips, and his face tightened.

"I'm sorry," Cas told him, and gathered Dean into his arms, watching his face to make sure he wasn't hurting him too badly. Dean's lips went white, and his face seemed to go a shade greyer, but he didn't protest.

Cas stood up, swaying slightly with the added weight of Dean. Usually, he wouldn't even register the other man's weight, not with his angelic strength. But now, with his grace so weak, Cas could barely even stand on his own.

Cas waited until the world stopped spinning, then shifted Dean slightly in his arms. Dean moaned again, the noise just barely audible. His right arm hung down limply, and Cas winced at the way the joint looked, flat and bumpy in all the wrong places. He must have dislocated it.

"Sam, his arm," Cas said. Sam had been hovering beside him, also staring intently at Dean's face. At Cas's words, Sam gasped and reached for his brother. Carefully, he lifted Dean's injured arm and laid it gently on his chest, high, where it wouldn't compress his injured ribs.

"Thanks," Dean mumbled, blinking blearily at Sam. Sam nodded, looking somewhat stricken, and Cas took his first stumbling step forward. This was going to be a long walk.

* * *

Sam hovered around Cas, eyes locked on his brother's deathly pale face. Dean was breathing shallowly, eyes tightly closed, lines of pain deep around his mouth. They'd been walking for ten minutes straight, and Sam had expected Dean to pass out by now, or at least ask for a break. He certainly looked like he needed one. Sweat was mixing with the blood already drying on his face, running down his neck and soaking into his collar.

"Do you need a break?" Sam asked Dean softly, resting a hand gently on his brother's forehead. Dean's eyes flickered open, and Sam winced as he struggled to focus.

"Nnn," Dean answered, and Sam thought that was probably supposed to be a "no." Sam sighed. Dean didn't need to prove to Sam that he was tough, or to Cas. Sam would much rather him take a break than have him pass out in Cas's arms, where Sam couldn't see whether or not he was breathing.

"Cas, how 'bout you?" Sam asked, waggling his eyebrows at Cas. Cas stared at him in confusion, his eyes looking slightly glazed as well.

"Why are you doing that with your-" Cas's eyes widened. "Ohhhh. Yes, I could certainly use a break. Dean, I'm going to set you down, if that's alright."

Sam shook his head slightly. Cas wasn't exactly the master of subtlety, but Dean hadn't seemed to notice. Sam wasn't even sure he knew they were still talking. He was breathing very shallowly, and only thin strips of his eyes were visible beneath his closed lids. The skin on his face was so washed out it was hard to tell where his lips began.

Cas very carefully knelt, and laid Dean on the ground beneath a tree. The movement seemed to rouse him slightly, and he opened his eyes.

"No," he muttered, gaze rapidly shifting between Cas and Sam before his lids slipped closed again. He made a small twitch of his fingers, and Sam thought he would have moved his hand more if he had the strength to.

"Cas needs to rest," Sam said.

Dean frowned slightly, but didn't protest. Sam stroked his sweaty, bloody hair away from his face, an intimate gesture of comfort they always reserved for only the most dire of circumstances.

"Do you think you could manage water?" Sam asked. He didn't think it would help really, but he was completely at a loss. He couldn't think of anything else he could do to make his brother feel better.

As Sam expected, Dean shook his head softly.

"Yeah, that's what I thought," Sam said, trying to keep his voice soothing. He brushed his fingers through Dean's hair again, since it had seemed to relax him slightly the first time. "Hopefully once we get back to the cave you can drink a little. And then I can give you something for the pain too, and that'll really help."

Sam wasn't sure he had anything strong enough to do more than take the edge off the agony Dean must be feeling, but Dean looked hopeful at the idea of painkillers and Sam didn't want to take that away. Anyways, Dean didn't seem to be tracking so well and Sam wasn't even positive he would remember this conversation by the time they got back to the cave.

"Do you feel a little better?" Sam asked. "Since we stopped moving?"

"Tired," Dean mumbled, which wasn't exactly an answer to the question.

"You can sleep while we're walking, if you'd like," Sam said, moving his hand from Dean's forehead to his neck, where he could check for a pulse. It was weak and thready, but there.

Dean shook his head slightly.

"It hurts too much?" Sam asked him.

"Yeah."

After a few more moments, Cas spoke up again. "We really should go," he said, his voice quiet. "We don't know if the leviathans are still looking for us."  
Sam nodded and squeezed Dean's uninjured shoulder. "We're gonna keep going," he told Dean.

"Kay," Dean said softly, and Cas picked him up once again. This time, Dean's eyes squeezed more tightly closed, and he whimpered quietly. Sam felt his stomach twist.

"Not much longer," he told Dean, knowing it was a lie, but unable to watch his brother struggle like this. He found himself almost hoping that Dean would pass out, at least then he wouldn't be in as much pain.

It took them almost thirty minutes to make it back to the cave, after stopping for two more "breaks for Cas." And Dean was awake for all of it. Sam could tell by the tightness of his face and the tension in his muscles. Dean didn't seem to be aware of much, but he was conscious, and he was in pain.

Cas made his way into their cave and Sam quickly laid down his bedroll as Cas stood waiting with Dean in his arms. As soon as it was ready, Cas set Dean down and Sam saw his brother's face relax, ever so slightly.

Sam knelt down beside Dean and pushed aside his shredded, bloodsoaked shirt. Dean inhaled sharply, and Sam winced.

"Sorry, I know it hurts," he said. "But I need to see how bad it still is." Sam steeled himself and began to examine Dean's injuries.

* * *

Sam was silent, which Dean knew wasn't a good sign. "Bad?" he asked weakly.

"It...it's not great," Sam admitted. "They really did a number on you." His voice was quiet, and a little scared.

"'M alive," Dean told him. He was usually better at the comfort-Sammy-in-a-crisis game, but for now, this was the best he could do.

Sam chuckled slightly, and Dean instantly felt just a little bit better. "Yeah, you're alive."

"Barely," Dean said, trying to inject a little whine into his voice, knowing it would reassure Sam.

"Shut up," Sam said, and even through his fuzzy vision, Dean saw Sam smile. "You've had way worse. This is just a flesh wound."

Dean laughed, just a little, and immediately regretted it as his chest seized with pain. His vision blurred, and he breathed shallowly, trying to stay conscious.

"Take it easy," Sam said, his voice echoing tinnily in Dean's ears. Slowly, the feeling of falling passed and Dean opened his eyes again, realizing he was holding Sam's hand in a death grip. He loosened his fingers, but he couldn't quite force himself to let go of his brother.

"What's the damage?" he managed to ask, keeping his vision trained on Sam, gauging his expression.

"I don't know if you heard Cas say this earlier, but all of your ribs are broken," Sam said. "You've lost...a lot of blood. And your shoulder's dislocated, but I'm not sure I can get it back in. Not without you sitting up."

Dean blanched at the idea of sitting up at all, even if Sam was taking all his weight. He did not want to be even the slightest bit vertical right now. And to be completely honest, the shoulder wasn't really bothering him. It was like a candle to the burning fire that was the rest of his body.

"Doesn' matter," Dean said.

"I could try healing him again," Cas said, bobbing into Dean's line of sight. "I feel a little-"

"Cas, no," Sam said, and in that instant, Dean wished he was strong enough to hit Sam in the face. "You're probably going to need to go back for the plant yourself. You need to save your strength."

Dean knew Sam was right. He didn't like it, but it had clearly taken a lot out of Cas to even do as much healing as he already had. He was weak, and he couldn't afford to get any weaker.

"'M okay," Dean muttered. He thought he saw Cas frown, but his vision wasn't focusing so well and it was a little hard to tell.

"I'm going to get you some of those painkillers now," Sam said. "I don't have the _really _good stuff with me, unfortunately. I didn't think we'd need it. But I do have the okay stuff. Well, these should make you sleepy at least, so that's something. These ones tend to make you a little nauseous, so I wish you could take them with food, but I don't think eating's a good idea for you right now at all. At least you'll have a few sips of water when you take them. That should help some."

Sam was rambling. Dean knew he tended to do that when he was nervous, which he assuredly was right now. Dean also tended to do it when Sam was hurt, as a distraction. Sam had learned it from Dean. Dean appreciated it.

Dean heard Sam rustling around in his bag, and then a few moments later he appeared with a small orange bottle of pills and a plastic water bottle.

"I won't make you sit up all the way," Sam said. "But I'll need to at least tilt your head up. Is that...is that okay?"  
Dean nodded, and felt Sam's hand slide beneath his head. Sam lifted, and Dean bit back a groan as everything suddenly felt a little bit worse. Dammit, he couldn't even _lift his head_ without feeling like he was going to pass out.

Sam held up the water, and Dean reached for it with his left hand. Sam didn't let go of the bottle, and much as Dean hated to admit it, he knew he needed the extra help. His left hand was uninjured, but it was still shaking badly, and Dean didn't think he'd be able to hold the water himself.

Sam helped him tip some water into his mouth, then gave him a few pills. Dean swallowed, then, at Sam's bidding, took a few more sips.

"You should be able to sleep soon," Sam said, letting his head back down. Dean nodded, hoping Sam was right. He closed his eyes, praying that the medication would relax his exhausted body enough for him to sleep and get away from the pain, even if it was just for a little while.


	5. Chapter 5

Cas watched as the tension in Dean's face eased, agonizingly slowly. Sam breathed a sigh of relief from his place by his brother's head.

"He's asleep?" Cas asked.

"Yeah," Sam answered. "He seems really out, too. I'll wait a little longer, let him get deeper, and when I know he won't wake up I'll put his shoulder back in and stitch him up."

Cas frowned, looking at Dean's upsettingly still form, his face streaked with blood. He wished he'd been able to heal Dean more, but he knew Sam was right. If they didn't get the plant, if they lost their best chance at getting back to Apocalypse World, then Dean was never going to forgive him. And they couldn't get the plant if Cas spent any more energy healing Dean. They were running out of time.

But even so, Cas didn't feel right leaving, not yet. Not until he knew that Dean, badly injured though he might be, wasn't going to be dead when Cas returned.

"Do you need my help?" Cas asked Sam, hoping desperately the answer would be "yes," and he'd have an excuse to linger a little longer.

Sam shot him a grateful look and nodded. "Actually, yeah. If you could hold him when I pop his shoulder back in, that way even if he wakes up, you can keep him still. Thanks."

"It's the least I can do," Cas said solemnly. "I wish I could do more."

"You saved his life, Cas." Sam looked over at Dean, and Cas saw the look in his eyes, a relief that went so deep it was almost painful. "That's...that's more than I can ever repay as it is. Thank you."

Cas smiled softly. "Dean will be okay, Sam. I promise."

Once Sam had decided that enough time had gone by, he moved to Dean's right side. Cas automatically moved into place on Dean's other side. He put one hand on Dean's (relatively) uninjured shoulder, and kept his other hand braced on his chest. Sam hefted Dean up as much as he could, resting Dean's back on his knee, and then popped the shoulder back in with a smooth, practiced motion. Dean's breathing changed slightly, speeding up, but his eyes didn't open and he didn't stir.

"How many times have you done that?" Cas asked, suddenly curious. He wondered, again, how they had managed to stay alive for the first two decades of their life.

Sam shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe seven? This one's a little weaker, since it's the one he always pops out."

Cas nodded, and kept a hand on Dean's shoulder while Sam went and got the supplies ready for the stitches. "I need to do this fast," Sam explained, sterilizing the needle and deftly threading it. "Usually he doesn't even actually knock out with these kinds of pills, I think it's just because he's so weak. I don't know how much longer he'll sleep, and I want to get the worst of it closed."

Cas had spent surprisingly little time around the Winchesters when one of them was very badly injured. Normally, if he was with them and they were hurt, he would heal them. But watching Sam put a hand on Dean's face to test how deeply asleep he was, and then carefully lift his shirt up and start stitching the deepest of the wounds, it really hit Cas how much time they had spent around _each other _when one was hurt. Cas had seen Dean hurt this badly only a couple of times, and often only for a few minutes, but Sam had clearly spent hours, days, _weeks, _dealing with Dean when he was in too much pain to sit up, when he was too weak to eat, when he was on different drugs that left him sleepy or sick. He knew him inside and out. It was impressive, but also a little sad.

It didn't take Sam very long to get Dean stitched up. Some of the bigger cuts were ragged, and Cas could see Sam puzzling over how to get the skin to lie smoothly. But most of the smaller wounds were easy to stitch, and the smallest of the cuts didn't need stitches at all. Before long, Dean's chest and back were neatly stitched and bandaged, looking much more manageable. Sam then busied himself cleaning Dean off, washing the blood from his hair and face and carefully cutting off the remnants of his shirt. Then he went to work washing out and dressing some of the smaller wounds, like the gash on Dean's elbow where he'd hit it on a rock after being dropped, or the small split in his lip where he'd involuntarily bitten through it.

By the time all that was done, Dean was blinking awake. His eyes were still glassy and unfocused, floating lazily between Sam and Cas, and Cas could tell he was still under the influence of heavy painkillers.

"Hi," he said sleepily.

"Hi, Dean," Sam said. "How do you feel?"

Dean blinked slowly up at them, struggling to process the question. "Mmmm," he said finally. "Heavy."

"That's the drugs," Sam told him with a small smile. "What about the pain?"

"Better," Dean answered, a small note of surprise in his voice. Sam's smile broadened, and Cas relaxed slightly. He no longer felt quite as guilty about leaving Dean in this state while he went after the plant.

Cas moved forward, fully into Dean's field of view. Dean's gaze wandered around him disconcertingly, not quite managing to focus on Cas's face.

"I have to go back to the canyon," Cas told Dean.

"Now?" Dean asked, looking confused.

Cas nodded. "We're running out of time to get the plant _and_ get to the extraction point. It's now or never. Sam is staying with you."

"Dang'rous," Dean mumbled.

"It'll be much safer if I go alone," Cas assured him. "I can remain unseen."

"Invisible angel," Dean whispered. "So cool."

Sam chuckled. "He'll be fine, Dean. And we're gonna hang out here and wait for him to get back. It'll be nice to let someone else do all the work, won't it?" Sam nodded at Cas, and Cas gave him a small smile in return. With every word Dean said, Cas felt some of his worry melt away, and he could see the equivalent feeling in Sam's eyes.

"Kay," Dean said, flicking his eyes back to Cas. "Don' get bit."

"I think that's just you," Sam told him gently. "Most people don't end up getting bit by tyrannosaurs."

"Torvosaurus," Dean mumbled automatically.

"Right. Torvosauruses." Sam shook his head, clearly still surprised by Dean's strangely extensive knowledge of dinosaurs.

"I'll be back as soon as I can," Cas said, rising to his feet.

"You sure you're okay to go now? You don't want to rest a little first?" Sam asked, looking up at him with worry.

Cas shook his head. They really didn't have time for him to delay any longer. Besides, the migraine he'd had earlier had eased to a steady throb, and he no longer felt like he might fall with every step. "I'm alright. Stay safe, the two of you."

"You too," Dean mumbled, eyes bouncing dizzily around the cave.

"I'll get the plant. I promise," Cas told Sam and Dean.

Sam nodded. "We know."

Cas walked to the mouth of the cave and turned one last time, Sam and Dean framed in the opening. Sam, hovering protectively beside Dean's heavily bandaged form, lifted a hand and waved to Cas. Cas waved back, then turned around and left the Winchesters behind.

* * *

Dean felt weird. He knew what was happening, sort of. At least, he had a general sense. He knew they were in the Jurassic. He knew they were fighting leviathans. He knew Sam was here, and Cas was gone. He knew something important was happening.

He knew he was hurt. Badly. He could feel the pain radiating out from, well...everywhere, really. He knew something was wrong with his thoughts. They kept bouncing around inside his skull, or sometimes floating by like clouds. It was hard to focus on any one thing. It kind of hurt to try.

"Feel weird," he muttered to Sam.

"Yeah," Sam said sympathetically. "That's the drugs. It probably feels a little worse because of the blood loss, but there's not much I can do about that right now. Unless you think you could drink some more water."

Dean blinked slowly, trying to process this information. Sam's face wavered in and out of focus. Nothing hurt right now, but nothing felt particularly good either.

"Feel weird."

"I know, Dean. I wish I could make it feel less weird."

Dean turned his head to the side slightly, wondering if that would be more comfortable. It wasn't. He let his eyes slip closed.

"Are you tired, Dean? Do you want to try to sleep a little more? The drugs will have worn off some by the time you wake up. Although...you're going to like the pain even less…."

Dean rolled his head back towards Sam and narrowed his eyes, trying to bring his brother into focus. There was something wrong with his chest. There was something _on _it. He tried to move his hand, ready to pry whatever it was off. He didn't want anything on his chest. He wasn't going to stand for that.

Sam caught his hand. "Dude, no. Don't pull at that. Those are your bandages."

"Bandages." It wasn't a question, he was just reaffirming that it was a word he had heard.

"Yeah. You need those."

Dean blinked slowly. He thought about pulling at the bandages again, but Sam was still holding his hand so he couldn't.

"I got bit by a dinosaur," he finally said, connecting the pieces together.

"I mean, a leviathan technically," Sam said. "But yeah. You got bit by a dinosaur."

"I...I got bit by a dinosaur?"

"Yes. You were very brave."

Dean frowned, trying to focus on Sam's words. Brave...he'd been brave, brave with what? Did it have something to do with why his chest hurt, why everything felt so weird?

"Sammy?"

"What is it, Dean?"

"Did I...did I get bit by a dinosaur?"

Sam sighed. "Yeah, you did. And you're pretty badly hurt, so why don't you try to get some sleep?"

Dean considered what Sam had said. Really, the only thing he could figure out was "sleep." And sleep sounded good, maybe when he woke up his head wouldn't be so blurry and not everything would feel so heavy.

"Okay," he told Sam, already feeling himself slipping off. "Sleep."

* * *

Cas paused at the entrance to the canyon, trying not to look too closely at the smears of Dean's blood on the stone. He'd been invisible since leaving the cover of the trees to approach the leviathans' den, but he still took a moment to reassure himself that he was properly hidden from the view of lesser beings. The last thing they needed was Cas getting caught and injured as well.

Satisfied with his concealment, Cas slipped through the entrance and into the cavern. The leviathans were scattered across the sandy floor, and it looked as though they were sleeping.

Excellent. That would make everything easier. Cas walked into the canyon silently, his angelic eyesight easily picking out the terrain, even in the darkness. He slipped softly past the boulder in front of the entrance, heading for the center of the canyon.

Here, the floor changed from sand to rock. Cas took one step, and everything was fine, and he took the next and suddenly he was on his knees on the ground, feeling his essence _tear_.

The pain was unimaginable. Cas heard a deafening sound, and he realized too late that he was screaming, screaming in his true voice. He broke off quickly, biting his lip to stop himself, and he felt his mouth fill with blood. But that was nothing compared to the pain ripping through his true form, shredding his grace.

Dimly, as if through fog, Cas realized that he had allowed himself to become visible. He concentrated, driving his fingernails into his palm as the shift to another plane tore further at his angelic self.

Cas forced himself to raise his head, helpless tears clouding his vision, hoping desperately that the leviathans somehow hadn't heard or seen him. But it was too late. The massive reptiles were rising, shaking away sleep and preparing for the hunt.

Cas tried to push himself upright, then stifled a gasp at the accompanying increase in pain. He doubled over, blood dripping from his nose and spattering onto his sleeve.

What was happening? He had _never _felt agony like this before. It was like being stabbed with an angel blade but a hundred times over, on every inch of his body. It was hard to breathe. It was hard to _think. _

The leviathans must have set up a trap for angels. Cas had never heard of something like this, something that could tear into an angel's grace in this way, but it made sense that with the right sigils, it would be possible. He wasn't sure how they had figured out the last ill-fated mission had involved an angel, but they must have realized somehow and now they were prepared. Whatever warding they had put up, Cas genuinely wasn't sure that he could get through it.

The muscles in his chest spasmed, and he tasted salt in the back of his throat. He knew he couldn't cough, now that the leviathans were paying attention they would surely hear him. With a small gasp of pain, he spit the blood into the palm of his hand. The sight of it made him a bit woozy. He had no idea what sort of internal damage the warding might be doing, but he knew it couldn't be good.

Cas looked up. The leviathans were truly on the prowl now, and Cas knew he didn't have much time. They tracked by smell more than sight, and although angels didn't have a distinct smell in the way humans do, the leviathans would surely pick up on the scent of blood.

The plant Gabriel had been talking about was towards the back of the valley. Cas knew it because he could _feel _it, tugging at his grace, and even if Gabriel had told him nothing at all about what they were looking for Cas would have been able to tell this plant was special. It was only...thirty yards away, maybe. So close, less than a minute's walk if only Cas could get himself up and moving. It was close enough that he could crawl there, if he really needed to.

And he thought that he might. He tried again to push himself to his feet, but the world seemed to fold in on itself and he was forced back down with a gasp. There was a ringing in his ears. Black spots swam in front of his vision, and he knew he shouldn't try to stand again. If he did, he might pass out, and if he passed out, he would probably become visible.

More blood worked its way up his throat. He tried to swallow it, but all of a sudden it was choking him. He gagged, and then spit it onto his sleeve. It was bright red, and even Cas, with his super healing abilities, knew enough to know that that meant something was very, very wrong. The warding had damaged something deep inside him, and he felt like he was being ripped apart at a cellular level, each molecule being torn asunder.

Cas felt something wet on his face. He lifted one shaky hand, and touched it to his cheek. Blood. And it was coming from his eyes. Cas didn't know if he was crying blood, or if his eyes themselves were bleeding. Either way, the thought made him sick.

The world tilted alarmingly around him. Somewhere in the back of of his mind, he knew he had lost a lot of blood. But he didn't think it was enough yet that he should already feel like he was on the edge of passing out. That must be from the pain. It was just...it was hard to exist when he felt like this….

Cas swallowed a whimper along with a mouthful of blood and dragged himself forward a few inches. The movement made his head swim, and he felt blood run down his face and drip off his chin. Mechanically, Cas managed to catch it on his sleeve, dimly recognizing that allowing it to fall on the ground would act as something of a giveaway.

Cas steeled himself and crawled another few inches, dropping his head to his arms as his muscles seized and his blood forced its way up his throat. But he couldn't give up now. He had to get the plant, he had to make it back to the Winchesters. They were counting on him.

* * *

"Umm, is it animal, vegetable, or mineral?"

"Animal," Dean said decisively, then frowned at the ceiling of the cave. "Wait…'s other. Or maybe…." He trailed off.

They were playing twenty questions, or at least giving it their best shot. Sam had picked it because it was a fairly easy game to follow, and because Dean had complained about being bored. Loudly. And often. And hadn't stopped until Sam had come up with something to do.

"Which is it?" Sam prompted Dean gently. Dean had been staring into space for about thirty seconds now, expression vacant. Apparently, Sam had underestimated just how hard the pain medication he'd given Dean was going to hit him.

"Whaaa...oh right," Dean mumbled, then painfully turned his head to glance at Sam. He didn't have to turn very far, Sam had intentionally planted himself right beside Dean, easily within both his reach and line of sight. Dean squinted at him.

"Is Baby an 'other?'" Dean whispered urgently, and Sam couldn't stop himself from laughing.

"Maybe I should pick and you should guess," Sam said gently. This was the fifth time Dean had gotten confused enough to give Sam the answer, and the third time he'd picked the Impala as his object.

"Nuh uh," Dean answered emphatically. "I got one."

"Is it the Impala?"

"...nooooo," Dean said, eyes sliding away from Sam. "An' that counts as a question."

"Is it a cactus?"

"...yeah."

"Cactus" had been Dean's other two turns. Sam sighed and looked down at his brother. It was unnerving to see Dean so utterly disconnected from reality. Sam rarely fully appreciated just how sharp his brother's mind was, not until he saw Dean like this. He didn't like it, but he'd far rather Dean be unable to string two words together than see him in the agonizing pain he'd been experiencing without the drugs.

And even with the drugs, Dean was still in pain. Sam watched as his brother shifted, looking up at him and wincing with the movement.

"Your turn," Dean mumbled. "C'mon, Sammy."

"Sorry," Sam said, absentmindedly placing a hand on Dean's shoulder, feeling better as soon as he could actually hold on to his brother, as soon as he could feel his presence. "Okay, I've got one. 'Other.'"

Dean's gaze bounced around the cave for a moment, and Sam could almost see the wheels turning in his brain as he struggled to process. His eyelids fluttered.

"You can sleep if you'd like," Sam said, as gently as he could. "You must be exhausted."

"Noooo," Dean said, forcing himself to rally. Sam had expected nothing less, he'd spent the past hour trying to get Dean to go back to sleep, and Dean had refused every time. "'S it big?"

"Yes," Sam said, although this of course depended on the scale.

"A dinosaur?"

"No, not a dinosaur. And I think a dinosaur would count as 'animal' anyways."

Dean narrowed his eyes at this, and looked at Sam suspiciously. Even in the dim light of the cave, Sam could tell that he was still fantastically pale, and his visible skin had an unhealthy greyish cast to it. His eyes were glassy, and even though the cave was pretty dark with the fire as their only source of light, the drugs had turned Dean's pupils into pinpricks.

"Is it a dinosaur?" Dean asked again. He clearly still had dinosaurs on the mind after his incident earlier.

"Nope," Sam said, trying not to laugh. "Any other guesses?"

Dean mumbled something unintelligible and nestled a little more sideways, so his cheek was more firmly pressed into the sweatshirt he was using as a pillow.

"What was that?"

"Is it Jupiter?"

"...No," said Sam slowly, staring at his brother. He had absolutely no idea where that had come from.

"I give up," Dean whispered. Sam could tell that as much as he wanted to stay awake, he was not going to be able to keep fighting the drugs much longer. Even just a quick nap would probably do him a world of good.

"Do you want me to tell you?"

"Yeah," he whispered.

"It was the Impala," Sam said, then started chuckling to himself. Dean's eyes were closed, and he did not react. He clearly didn't really get the joke.

"Yeah, get some sleep," Sam said softly, giving Dean's shoulder a squeeze. Sam turned and added more wood to the fire, listening as Dean's breathing deepened somewhat and leveled out, each inhale and exhale a wonderful reminder that Dean was still there.

"We're gonna get you out of here," Sam whispered to his sleeping brother. "Cas'll be back soon with the plant, and then everything is gonna be okay."


	6. Chapter 6

A/N - Probably two more chapters after this one! I'll keep posting pretty speedy!

* * *

Twenty yards to go. Cas dug his fingers into the rock and pulled his body another few inches, feeling his arms tremble. He let go of the rock with a muffled gasp and swallowed yet another mouthful of blood. Cas could feel his stomach tipping with nausea, but he couldn't give in to the pain just yet.

His hands were shaking. They had been for some time, but now his fingers were trembling so hard that it was difficult for Cas to control them. Cas tried to move his hands toward his face, to wipe off some of the blood still streaming from his eyes, but he abandoned the effort as they shook uselessly and used his sleeve instead.

Cas tried to curl his fingers around the rock again, but they refused to move. After a few whispered Enochian curses that accomplished nothing, not even making him feel better, Cas simply placed his palms flat on the uneven ground and pulled himself forward again. He felt his skin tear, and he clumsily pulled the sleeves of his trenchcoat over his tattered palms, keeping as much of his blood off of the rock as he could.

Gritting his teeth, he looked up, trying to gauge the distance to the plant, and froze. A leviathan was twisting its head, back and forth, its vision raking over the patch of ground where Cas was curled.

Cas knew that he was invisible to the leviathan's eyes, but he still found himself frozen in place, not even daring to breathe. That is, until the leviathan started lumbering towards him, slowly.

The gigantic reptile advanced, and Cas watched it come. He was completely defenseless. His hands were shaking too hard to even hold a blade, much less use it to vanquish a massive dinosaur. And his legs wouldn't take his weight. There was nowhere to run.

Cas looked to each side, desperate. To his left, there was a depression in the ground, a sort of furrow, likely where the river's current had run deeper. Cas gathered his remaining strength and rolled sideways, into the furrow.

The drop wasn't even a foot. There was a short incline, and then a small bed of dirt, and that was it. But that few seconds of uncontrolled rolling, and then the feeling of his body hitting the ground at the bottom...it was all he could do not to scream. The pain was so intense his vision swam black and red, and blossoms of agony burst behind his eyes. He had to tell his lungs to remember to breathe. He knew he couldn't scream, so he bit his lip so hard he felt it split. He wondered if he was about to black out. He wondered if maybe he wanted to.

Cas laid his head against the rough dirt, just focusing on breathing as the leviathan lumbered over, examined the ground where he had been crawling, and then, eventually, wandered away. He stayed still a few moments longer, just because everything hurt so bad the idea of moving was scary. He tried to focus on his heartbeat.

He wondered if it was possible that this would kill him. He wasn't exactly sure what was really happening, not inside his body. He knew that the warding was affecting his grace, and he knew that if anything was deadly for angels, it was things that damaged their grace. Would whatever the leviathans had done work like an angel blade? Was Cas going to bleed out right here, without the Winchesters ever knowing what had happened?

What would happen to the spell keeping them back in time, if Cas's grace was no longer supplying energy for it?

Cas groaned as quietly as he could. He knew he needed to get up and keep moving. He wouldn't be able to do anything just lying here. He lifted his head a fraction of an inch, wincing as even that small movement made his stomach lurch and his vision blur. He was only maybe ten yards away now. He could make it ten yards. And then all the way back out….

He started to crawl forwards again. For some reason, accepting that he might die was actually comforting, and he could move a little faster. Normally, his pain tolerance was high, but that was mostly because he knew that any injury he received wasn't really doing him any permanent damage. Now, it was the opposite. This _was_ truly damaging him, and there was nothing he could do but accept it.

Cas ignored the blood streaming from his eyes, nose, and mouth and continued his slow progress along the canyon floor. By some miracle, after the first leviathan had turned away from him, none of the others had come near. Cas's path to the plant was unobstructed.

The last ten yards seemed to take him hours. Cas knew it was probably only about ten minutes, but the agonizing pain in every single cell made it seem far longer. But finally, he reached the small sandy area among the rocks where the plant grew.

Cas knew what it was as soon as he saw it. The plant was a sort of fern, dark green with a silvery sheen to it. He could feel it calling to his damaged grace, making it stir uncomfortably. If his grace hadn't felt tattered and worn, the plant's effects might have been almost pleasant.

Cas reached out a shaking hand and somehow managed to pull up a good chunk of the plant, roots and all. He stuffed the clump of vegetation and dirt into his pocket and took a shallow, relieved breath. Then, he laboriously turned himself around and began the arduous journey back.

* * *

Dean shifted in his sleep, and all of a sudden he wasn't sleeping anymore. Every single one of his muscles tensed, and he lay frozen on the bedroll, trying to avoid even breathing. The pain was back.

"Dean?" Sam was there instantly, sounding alarmed. Dean cracked his eyes open and saw his little brother hovering above him, eyebrows drawn together in a worried frown. "Is the medication wearing off?"

Dean nodded. He still felt a little fuzzy, and he could feel his eyes struggling to focus on Sam, but his head felt much clearer than before, and most importantly, the pain was once again all-encompassing.

Sam's expression ratcheted up a few more notches, firmly into upset territory, and Dean would have sighed if it didn't hurt so much even to breathe.

"Too soon?" he asked resignedly, and Sam nodded.

"Sorry, Dean," Sam said miserably. "It'll be a few more hours."

"Kay," Dean answered, trying hard to sound like this was very much no big deal. He directed his gaze towards the ceiling and experimented with just how shallowly he could breathe before spots swam before his eyes from lack of oxygen.

Dean managed that for about five minutes before he felt like screaming, half from the pain and half from boredom.

"Wanna play fuck, marry, kill?" he asked Sam hopefully.

"Sure!" The relief was evident in Sam's voice, and the smile on his face made Dean feel just a bit better. Dean managed an answering smile, and he thought it was probably a little shaky, but hopefully he got points for trying.

"You have to think of one," Dean said. They'd played this game many times driving across the country in the Impala with almost every woman either of them could think of. They normally did variations on the basic game now, just to give themselves more options, but Dean thought Sam knew he was too exhausted and in too much pain for anything more complex.

"Okay," Sam said, and Dean could tell he was trying to think fast. "Princess Leia, Amelia Earhart, and, uh, that green chick from Guardians of the Galaxy."

"Gamora," Dean said weakly. Sam should know this, they'd watched most of the Marvel movies once and then had to watch them again when Cas realized he found them interesting. And anyways, Dean was in a lot of pain and probably dying of blood loss, and Sam was pretty much fine.

"Whatever," Sam said. "You know who I meant."

"Kill Gamora," Dean said. He had to focus hard on articulating every word, or he didn't think he'd be understandable. Even though the pain meds didn't seem to be doing anything for the actual pain anymore, they were still making him slur. "It'd probably save a bunch of people cause Thanos couldn't do it. Fuck Amelia Earhart, 'cause she's...I would never wanna marry someone who was that into planes. And if I married Princess Leia I could fuck her a bunch of times!"

Sam chuckled slightly. "I buy it. Same order, although slightly different reasons."

"I knew it. You always wanna screw the historical figures."

Sam went a little pink around the ears, but he didn't deny it. It was not unusual for them to pick the same order, although, they usually didn't have the same logic behind it. There was also plenty of times they picked a completely different order, and a few times they'd nearly come to blows over it.

"Hang on," Sam said. "Just give me a second, I can keep thinking of them…."

* * *

Cas had somehow, against all odds, made it out of the valley. But now...there was a lot of distance between him and the cave where the Winchesters were waiting. And Cas simply wasn't sure if he could make it. He knew he kept flickering in and out of visibility now, and there was nothing he could do about it. Even if he concentrated as hard as he could, it wasn't enough.

And he couldn't concentrate anyways, not for long. He was distracted by the pain aching through every part of his being. His head was pounding, his eyes felt like they were being stabbed by needles. The taste of blood in the back of his throat was threatening to start him gagging. He still hadn't been able to stand.

Cas groaned as he felt himself shift back into the visible dimension, and painfully pushed himself back out of the spectrum. If the leviathans came after him, he certainly wouldn't be able to fight, or run. And if he happened to be visible, then there was nothing he'd be able to do. But every time he drew on his grace, the pain in his essence spiked, and the blood climbed higher up his throat.

Cas looked ahead, at the empty scrublands between him and the trees. It wasn't that far, he knew that. He'd just run there with Dean. But now, when every inch was a struggle, it seemed nearly impossible.

Once he got to the trees, Cas would let himself be seen, just for a bit. At this point, Cas thought that if he didn't drop his cover, he wouldn't make it back to the Winchesters. He paused to cough blood into a convenient bush and continued crawling towards the cover of the trees.

Fifteen minutes later, every muscle in Cas's body ached, and his stomach was writhing from the blood he'd swallowed. But he was almost at the forest.

Cas made it to the treeline just as his arms gave out. He collapsed face down into the dry pine needles littering the forest floor, trembling violently and flickering back into visibility. Then, he rolled to his side just in time to retch, blood spilling from his mouth as he finally gave up the battle with nausea.

Cas closed his eyes, the extra movement spiking the pain upwards, making the world blur slightly. He choked helplessly, the blood still streaming from his eyes running down his face to join the growing puddle.

Eventually, the nauseous lurching of his stomach subsided, and Cas lay limply on his side, gasping desperately for breath. He could feel the puddle of blood seeping slowly into the ground beneath him, staining the side of his face and his trenchcoat red, but he couldn't bring himself to care. Cas could feel the world fading, narrowing to a pinprick, then zooming out of focus until it felt like he was watching himself, lying in a pool of his own blood on the spongy ground.

"No," Cas whispered. "_Get up._"

But he couldn't move.

"They need you," Cas reminded himself, choking on a mouthful of blood and spitting it unceremoniously to the side. "Get up."

Cas groaned and reached out, hands brushing the trunk of a tree. He pulled himself up, swaying heavily, surprised to be on his feet at all. Clinging to the tree, Cas rested his head against the bark, each breath leaving a small spray of blood spattered across the trunk. But however weak he was, he was standing. Using his powers really _had_ been draining him even further.

Moving slowly, but moving nonetheless, Cas took his first stumbling step in over two hours.

It wasn't quite as bad as he had expected. Well, that was perhaps not quite correct. But he had expected it to be horrible, and instead it was only very marginally worse than crawling. He hurt a lot either way. And this way at least he could move faster.

He spent about ten minutes stumbling forward, moving from tree to tree and using the trunks to hold him up. He left bloody smears on the bark. A few times, he had to pause and cough blood onto the ground. His vision was swimming and crawling with black, so he was glad he had already walked through this way once.

After ten minutes, he had to rest. One second, he was walking, and the next second, he felt his legs starting to crumple beneath him. He managed to slow his fall by sliding down the tree that had been holding him up. Then he spent a few minutes sprawled out on the ground, panting as he tried to keep his vision from greying out.

The nausea abruptly spiked again, and he gagged up a few small mouthfuls of watery blood, wincing as the movement sent the muscles in his chest and stomach into a flurry of spasms. His mouth tasted like blood, and he would have given a finger for a few sips of water, even just to rinse his mouth out. But he had nothing.

The second he felt he could force himself back to his feet without passing out, he did. The ground immediately took an ominous tilt, and he had to focus hard to keep from falling. But after a few seconds of standing still with his eyes trained on the horizon, he could start walking again, although now his legs were so shaky it was hard to go in a straight line.

He had thought yesterday, when he'd been carrying Dean in his arms, when he'd been going slow and careful to avoid jostling him, when he'd had to pause several times for him to rest, would be the worst version of this walk he would ever take. But at least he had known Dean wasn't going to die, and he wasn't sure he could say the same thing for himself. And there was, of course, no one to carry him.

But he kept moving forward. Even if it took hours and hours, he was going to get back to the Winchesters. He would bring them the plant he had collected, and he would make sure Dean was okay. And then, while they were guarding the cave, maybe he could lie down for a bit. He just had to make it back to them. One step at a time.

* * *

Sam stared intently at the cave wall, wrestling with the problem at hand. "Umm, okay," he announced.

"Finally," Dean said weakly. "I decided ten minutes ago."

Sam made a face at his brother, choosing to ignore the way Dean's words were running together. "Fuck Victoria, kill Olivier, marry Eowyn."

"You wanna marry the Lord of the Rings chick over Victoria Beckham?" Dean sniggered, then broke off in pain. He breathed gently for a few seconds, then continued. "An' you call me a nerd."

Sam opened his mouth to defend his choice to his brother, then paused. "Did you hear that?"

Dean frowned. "Hear what?"

Sam held up a warning hand and cocked his head, listening closely. There was something moving outside the cave. "There's something out there," he whispered.

Dean shifted slightly, clearly trying to get up.

"Stay there," Sam hissed, and Dean subsided, looking upset. Sam got to his feet and began moving towards the front of the cave, as quietly as he could.

There was a small scuffling sound, then a sigh, and Cas appeared in front of them. Sam didn't have time to register anything but the rusty red streaks on his trenchcoat and face before he was crumpling to the ground, unmoving.

"Cas!" Sam moved instantly to his friend's side, dropping down beside him and touching his shoulder gently. Cas's face was sheeted with blood, and Sam felt his stomach twist. The angel's eyes actually seemed to be bleeding, as well as his nose and mouth. Sam squeezed Cas's shoulders. His eyelids flickered, but the angel didn't answer.

"Is he okay?" Dean's voice was breathless with worry, and pain. Sam turned around for the briefest of moments to find his brother struggling upright, face ashen.

"Dean, what-"

Dean sagged against the wall of the cave, left arm looped protectively around his ribs, as well as his injured right arm. "Don't worry about me," he gasped. "Cas. What's wrong with him?"

Sam resisted the urge to scream in frustration at his brother, at the leviathans, at the universe in general, and turned his attention back to Cas. The angel's eyes swam dizzily around, then focused on Sam's face.

"I got the plant," Cas whispered, then coughed. Sam watched helplessly as blood frothed from his lips, running down his chin.

"Alright," Sam said distractedly, completely unable to deal with Cas's dogged insistence on completing every mission regardless of the personal state he was in. "But...what happened? Are you hurt? Where is the wound?"

Cas shook his head.

"Not your blood?"

Cas grimaced and shook his head again, and Sam felt his chest tighten.

"Where is it coming from?" Sam asked gently. He started carefully easing the blood-soaked trench coat open, trying to figure out what was going on.

"Angel...warding…." Cas gasped. His eyelids fluttered, and Sam prayed he wasn't going to pass out just yet. If Cas was unconscious, there was no way Sam would be able to help him.

"Angel warding?"

Cas nodded weakly. "Did...something to...my grace…."

"Can we fix it?" Sam asked desperately. He had known Castiel for almost ten years at this point, but he still had very little idea how the angel's grace actually worked. He had no idea how much damage Cas's grace could take before it became irreparable, and he had no idea how to help fix what had already been done. He could tell Cas was in a lot of pain, but he wasn't sure exactly where the pain was actually located, and he couldn't even begin to imagine what it might feel like.

"Not sure…." Cas gasped out.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Sam asked. Even if he couldn't heal Cas exactly, he could at least make Cas more comfortable. Or at least, he hoped he could.

But the angel didn't respond. His eyes were still half-open, bouncing dazedly around the room, but he seemed to have stopped tracking, or possibly lost the strength to respond.

"What is wrong with him?" Dean asked sharply, and Sam heard an ominous intake of breath that he knew must mean Dean was trying to sit up more. "Sam, move. Let me see him."

"He's bleeding…," was all Sam could get out, and he shifted aside slightly so Dean could get a better look at his friend. "I'm not sure how to help him…."

Sam looked back at Dean, and saw that his brother had gone alarmingly pale. He wasn't sure if it was because of the pain of sitting up, or if it was because of how bad Cas looked.

"That's a lot of blood," Dean said, and Sam thought he'd gone an extra shade paler, his freckles standing out sharply on his face. "Where...where's it coming from?"

"I think it's internal," Sam answered heavily, glancing at Cas. As he watched, Cas moaned softly, and his body jerked. Blood spilled from his mouth, but he didn't react. Sam hurried to the angel, reaching to turn Cas on his side so he didn't choke.

"How am I supposed to help you?" Sam whispered, watching helplessly as blood ran down Cas's face. The image of Dean in this same position, only a few hours before, appeared unbidden in Sam's mind. Sam squeezed his eyes shut, trying to dispel the memory, trying to forget that the two most important people in his world were so badly injured and Sam had _no idea_ what to do. Dean was here, he was going to be okay, and Cas would be alright too. He had to be.


	7. Chapter 7

Dean felt sick, and he wasn't sure if it was from the pain that was constantly demanding his attention, or if it was because of Cas. The angel looked horrible, blood streaking from his eyes, his nose, and his mouth, all seemingly without Cas's knowledge. Sam had turned him on his side, but he hadn't really seemed to notice. He hadn't even blinked.

"Cas?" Dean asked, hoping against hope that somehow, the angel would hear him and open his eyes. But Cas didn't answer.

"Did he say it was his grace?" Dean asked Sam, as it became clear that Cas wasn't answering any questions.

Sam nodded, still staring at Cas. Dean winced. Cas's grace had already taken quite a few hits, including healing Dean. If he had been stronger on the way into the canyon, if they hadn't sent him in alone, if Dean hadn't gone and gotten himself bitten by a fucking dinosaur….

"I...I don't know what to do for him," Sam admitted softly. "I don't know what I _can_ do for him." Sam was still sitting beside Cas, his back to Dean, one hand on the angel's shoulder. And even though Dean couldn't see Sam's face, he could hear the worry and hopelessness in his voice.

Without thinking, Dean tried to push himself off the wall, the one thought in his mind getting to Sammy, getting to Cas. But before he could get very far, not even far enough to really feel the pain, Sam had whipped his head around, glaring daggers.

"NO," Sam almost shouted, and Dean froze with his left hand still poised on the cavern wall. "Dean, just STAY THERE, I-I can't deal with both of you at the same time, and I don't really want to see you unconscious on the ground for like the fifth time today!"

Sam paused, breathing a little quicker, and Dean could read the warning signs. "Okay," Dean said, and carefully leaned back against the wall. "Okay, Sammy. I'll stay here."

Sam stared at him a little longer, like he couldn't quite believe Dean had given up without a fight. But to be completely honest, part of him knew that Sam was right. There was nothing he could do for Cas, not in his current state, and he didn't want to force Sam's attention onto him, away from his injured friend.

"Just...tell me what you're doing," Dean finally said. "I want to know how he is."

"Okay," Sam said, and Dean could hear the tension and fear in his voice. "Right now I'm...I guess I'm gonna get him cleaned up some. Just make sure all of the bleeding really is internal. Yeah."

Sam reached back and grabbed one of their precious water bottles, then peeled off his flannel. He wet one of the sleeves, squeezed it out until it was just a bit damp, then went to work cleaning the blood off Cas's face and out of his hair. Cas still didn't wake, but he seemed to relax slightly at Sam's touch. His breathing evened a little.

"I think he likes the way this feels," Sam said. Dean couldn't tell if he was actually talking to him or just murmuring to himself. Sam gently stroked the cloth down Cas's cheeks, and squeezed out some of the blood onto the floor of the cave.

"Does he have a fever?" Dean asked.

Sam laid the back of his hand against Cas's forehead. "Umm, it's hard to tell. Maybe a little one, yeah. So this might be cooling him down."

"Do you think he could get down pain pills?" Even suggesting this was a big sacrifice for Dean to make. Their supply of pain pills wasn't unlimited, and for them to even make a dent on whatever agony Cas was feeling, he would probably have to take all of what they had left. Which, of course, would leave Dean with nothing. But even though Dean wasn't sure he had ever been more injured than this in his entire life, he knew Cas was doing worse.

Sam made a small sound in the back of his throat, and Dean knew he was making the same calculations. "I'm not sure," he said. "We can't give them to him while he's unconscious like this. He'd have to take too many, and I'm afraid he would choke. Even then...I don't know if they'd help with something like this. And I don't know if we have enough to make a difference."

"We can ask him if he wakes up."

Instantly, both of them stiffened. That wasn't what Dean had meant. He'd meant _when, _they could ask Cas _when _he woke up. But it had just slipped out, because he wasn't thinking, and because Cas was completely limp, turned slightly away from him, barely seeming to be breathing.

Sam opened his mouth, like he was going to say something about it, but then he shook his head slightly and closed it. He went back to mopping off Cas's face. It seemed to only take a few seconds before the section of flannel he had wet before was so bloody he had to switch to a new part.

"That's a lot of blood," Dean said.

"Yeah, he's, uh, still crying blood."

Dean must have visibly paled, because Sam tried to back track. "I mean, not a lot of blood. It looks like it was worse earlier. Now it's just a few tears. It's definitely slowing."

"And his eyes seem fine?" Dean asked, swallowing hard. The image of young Sam crying bloody tears after fighting Bloody Mary rose unbidden in his mind, and he told himself firmly that that had worked out fine.

"As far as I can tell, yeah. It's just 'cause he's bleeding from everywhere. I don't think his eyes were damaged."

"Dude. Look at his hands."

"What...oh. That's...yeah."

Sam had picked up one of Cas's hands, and was examining the palm. His face confirmed what Dean had thought. Cas's palm was bloody, and not just from the blood that covered the rest of his body. It had been scraped raw, and was a mess of small cuts and scrapes, still bleeding sluggishly.

"His other hand is the same way," Sam said after a quick check.

"Well, we can at least help with that," Dean sighed. "Ain't much, but it's something."

Sam nodded and reached for the flannel and began cleaning off Cas's palm. When the blood was gone, he stood up, looking slightly lost. Dean spotted the first aid kit resting nearby and picked it up, holding it out to Sam.

Sam shook his head, wincing slightly. "We're out of bandages. I...uhhh, used them all on you."

Dean looked down at his heavily bandaged torso, almost every inch of skin covered. "Oh."

Sam took the flannel and tore off a few strips, wrapping them around Cas's palms and tying them off. "I hope that helps," he muttered, then retreated slightly, giving Cas a little room. Dean settled into a position that hurt less, but still afforded a good view of Cas. Now, there was nothing left to do but wait.

* * *

At first, Cas had told himself that once he got to the Winchesters, the pain would ease. Then, he'd told himself that if he had a chance to rest, the pain would ease. Then, he'd been worried that if he rested, he might not wake up. And then he'd gotten back to the cave, he'd fallen, and he'd lost all choice in the matter.

Cas didn't know how long he'd been unconscious. It didn't feel like long, because the pain was just as bad as when everything had gone black. But when he opened his eyes, there was light filling the cave, and Cas realized that it was much later than he'd thought.

"Cas?" He was lying on his side, and Sam was hovering beside him, eyes large and worried. Cas opened his mouth to reply, but nothing came out.

"Is he awake?"

Sam moved aside slightly to reveal Dean, propped against a wall a little ways away. "Yeah," Sam said over his shoulder. "Just barely."

"How you feeling?" Dean asked, voice slightly softened.

Cas paused, unsure what to say, or if he could even speak yet. "Alive," he gasped out finally. "You?"

"Better than you," Dean said with a small snort. "Hey, buddy, think you could swallow some pills?"

Cas frowned. There was something wrong with this idea, but he couldn't quite grasp what. Then, after what seemed like an age, he remembered. "Yours," he managed to say.

"About that...tell him, Sammy."

Sam smiled, a small smile that didn't reach his eyes. "Cas, we're gonna need to move pretty soon in order to reach the pickup point, and Dean...well, you saw him on a heavy dose of those drugs…."

"I lose my freaking mind," Dean said bluntly. "There's no way I'm makin' it through dino territory on that stuff. They're yours. Hopefully, they can take the edge off."

Cas blinked slowly. Everything did hurt rather a lot. The ripping pain that he'd felt while he was actually in the canyon was gone, but it was replaced by a dull cramping that seemed to be in every single muscle in his body. His skin was so sensitive the rough cave floor felt like a bed of nails. The muscles in his torso felt trembly and achy, and he wasn't sure whether he wanted to cough or vomit but he knew that something was wrong. His head hurt enough that he couldn't get his eyes to focus. He felt desperately weak. His mouth still tasted like salt.

If he was going to move, Dean was right. He needed pills.

"Cas?" Sam asked.

"Thanks," Cas whispered.

He heard the faint rattling of a pill bottle, and then Sam's hand was in front of his face, holding six small pills. "I don't know if this will be enough to do anything," Sam said. "But it's all we can give you. I'm still saving enough for another half-dose for Dean, in case the walk is too much for him."

"Alright," Cas said quietly.

"Do you...can you swallow?" Sam asked, eyebrows pulling together.

Cas didn't feel confident enough either way to answer, but he started trying to get his arms under him so he could push himself to a sitting position. He bit back a groan as his exhausted muscles engaged, then whimpered as his elbows gave way and he fell back to the cave floor.

"Whoa, whoa," Sam said, putting a quick hand under his shoulder. "Don't try to move that much. Let me help you."

"I-" He broke off. Because Sam was completely right. He did need help. Sam slid an arm under his shoulders, and helped him into a half-sitting position, his head propped against the cave wall on a balled up jacket.

Cas knew he must look terrible, because Sam's face creased with worry. "That's it, just catch your breath," Sam muttered. His hand hovered awkwardly around Cas's face, but he didn't touch him.

"Water?" Cas whispered.

"Yeah," Sam said, and then suddenly Sam was holding a water bottle, tilting a few sips carefully into Cas's mouth. Cas swallowed a few times, trying to force his uncooperative muscles to cooperate, and then Sam pulled the bottle away.

"More," Cas whispered.

"Just a little," Sam said. "I don't know how much internal damage was done, so having a lot in your stomach may not feel great in a few minutes."

Cas nodded slightly to show he'd understood, and Sam allowed him a few more sips of water. Then he helped him swallow down the painkillers. Cas vaguely hoped they wouldn't make him sleepy the way they had Dean, but he supposed he wouldn't be doing much in the way of walking or fighting either way.

"Let those kick in a little," Sam told him. "Then, we'll see how you're feeling and try to head out." Sam helped Cas lie back down on his side, resting his head on the jacket, and Cas let his exhausted eyes slip closed.

* * *

"How much time do we have left?" Dean asked, and Sam glanced at his watch.

"A few hours," Sam answered with a grimace. They were getting close to the deadline, closer than he liked. Getting to the prearranged spot shouldn't take that long, but he hadn't counted on both Dean and Cas being badly injured. Now, he wasn't sure how much of a window they had.

"He doesn't look too good." Dean said, nodding at Cas. "Think he'll be ok to walk?" Sam frowned. Dean was right, Cas looked awful. His eyes were barely focusing, and he'd actually accepted Dean's pain medication, which _had_ to be a warning sign. But Dean didn't look too good either. He was still alarmingly pale, with heavy, bruise-colored circles darkening his eyes, and his every movement looked as if he were made of glass.

"Are you gonna be okay to walk?" Sam asked, watching Dean shift his position, his face carefully neutral.

"Kinda have to be," Dean answered, and Sam noticed the subtle omission of a shrug. "I think Cas'll need help to walk at all."

Sam pursed his lips. "Dean, you got _bitten by a dinosaur_ less than a day ago."

"Your point?" Dean asked, raising an eyebrow. Sam shook his head.

"Just...Dean, you got pretty fucked up. I...I just wish there was another option."

Dean gave him a "yeah me too" grimace, and then brightened slightly. "What about Dino Gabe? Could Cas give him a shout out over angel radio or something? Get him to give us a ride?"

"Dean, that's brilliant!" Sam grinned, feeling immediately better at the prospect of assistance, from an archangel no less.

"I dunno about 'brilliant,'" Dean said, but he was smiling too, some of the tension gone from his shoulders, and Sam could tell that he was pleased with the compliment. "We can just wake Cas up whenever we would have before."

"Which won't be too long now," Sam informed him. "I still want to leave us extra time."

Dean rolled his eyes. "There's the kid who was never late to school once in his entire life. He's still in there."

Sam returned Dean's exasperated expression. "I was late _all the time._ You never once managed to leave on time."

"Whatever," Dean said. "I was probably doing important stuff."

They lapsed into a comfortable silence. Sam checked Cas's vitals again. His heartbeat was a little weak, but surprisingly even. Same with his breathing, although each breath was shallow, he didn't seem to be laboring too much to get air. His eyes had stopped bleeding, which Sam was desperately relieved about. That had been concerning, obviously, but it had also looked pretty freaky. Now, the biggest problem seemed to be how pale he was. He was paler than Dean, and that was really saying something. The pallid cast to his face spoke of extreme blood loss, and Sam knew that that would make him sleepy and weak and confused.

"I think it's time to get him up," Sam said a few minutes later.

"He's not unconscious, is he?"

"I'm...not sure," Sam said. He gave Cas's shoulder a tentative shake. Nothing happened. He shook him a bit harder, and this time Cas moaned softly and opened his eyes. He blinked for a few seconds, and then managed to get them all the way open and locked on Sam.

"Hey Cas," Sam said gently. He tried to speak as slowly and clearly as possible, not sure how well the angel was processing. "We need to go, okay? We need to get back to the collection point, so Gabriel can bring us back to our own time."

Cas closed his eyes again.

"Tell him to pray to Gabe," Dean said.

"I'm trying! He can't even keep his eyes open. Just...give him a second."

Sam pushed at Cas's shoulder again. Once again, he opened his eyes. "Come on," Sam said, a little desperately, not sure what he would do if Cas couldn't even stay awake enough to call for Gabe. "Come on, Cas."

Cas made a small sound in the back of his throat. Sam couldn't tell if it was a response, or if it was just an involuntary reaction to the pain.

"He can't talk?" Dean asked.

"Not yet," Sam said, trying to keep at least some of the worry out of his voice. "He's...really weak."

Sam shook Cas's shoulder one more time. "Hey, please keep your eyes open," Sam said desperately as soon as Cas blinked. This time, some of the meaning seemed to catch, and he didn't immediately start to fall asleep again. Sam still wasn't sure how much he understood, but he seemed to nod slightly.

"Cas," Sam said. He had given up on trying to speak slowly. He wasn't sure how much time he had before Cas started to drift off again. "Dean and I need you to do something. We need you to try to contact Gabriel."

Cas stared at him, which Sam supposed was an improvement. But after a few seconds, he still hadn't responded.

"Cas, we need you to try to talk to Gabriel," Sam said again, hearing desperation creep into his voice. "Please."

"Gabriel," Cas whispered, and Sam nodded excitedly.

"Yes, Gabriel, that's it!" Sam squeezed Cas's shoulder, hoping that the contact would ground him, remind him what was going on.

Cas closed his eyes again, and Sam was about to lose all hope, but then Cas frowned in concentration. Sam felt Cas tense, and then he jerked under Sam's hand.

"Cas?" Sam said in dismay, and Cas's eyes flickered open. His nose had begun bleeding again.

"I...tried," Cas whispered, and then his eyes rolled back in his head and his limbs went limp.

* * *

"What the hell happened?" Dean asked urgently. All he could see was Sam's back, but he hadn't been able to hear anything from Cas and that worried him. "Is he okay?"

"He passed out," Sam said, turning around slightly. "His-his nose is bleeding, I think-"

"Calling Gabe was one step too far," Dean finished bitterly. "Dammit."

"We didn't know," Sam said, looking as though he didn't believe it any more than Dean did. "Dean-"

"Yeah, yeah, not my fault and all that crap," Dean said unhappily, looking past Sam to Cas's ashen face. "Still…."

"I know." Sam looked over at him, eyes sympathetic. "We'll get him home."

"Then we better get going," Dean said in resignation. "We don't know if Gabe is coming, and we can't waste time waiting around for him."

Sam nodded and began moving around the cave, packing up their remaining supplies. It didn't take him long, and soon he was kneeling at Cas's side once more. He reached out and shook the angel's shoulder gently.

"Cas?" There was no response.

"Is he out again?" Dean asked. A very, very small part of him had been hoping that Cas would wake up on his own, and somehow magically be able to walk, and then Sam could help Dean. As dumb and embarrassing as it was, Dean was really not sure how well he was going to be able to move unassisted.

"Yeah," Sam said. "But I really don't know that we can wait any longer…."

Dean nodded resignedly. "Alright, get me up," he said, working hard to keep his voice steady. "And then I'll just...lean over here while you get Cas…."

"You think you can walk?" Sam asked, coming over to kneel by his side.

"Don't have a choice."

Sam pursed his lips slightly, but he didn't argue. Dean swallowed hard. Even just lying here and not moving hurt. He couldn't imagine trying to walk. He couldn't take more than just a shallow breath without his vision whiting out with pain. He was light headed with blood loss, and even the slightest movement made his head pound sickeningly.

But he simply didn't have a choice. Cas clearly couldn't take even a step on his own, and there was no way Sam could carry both of them.

So Dean held his hand out to Sam, and after only the briefest hesitation, Sam grabbed it. He pulled Dean into a sitting position and then kept a hand on his back for a few seconds as Dean fought to get his breath back, trying desperately not to throw up.

"You good?" Sam asked.

"Yep," Dean said, only a little hesitatingly. He started trying to push himself to his feet, ignoring the shaking in his legs. Sam quickly grabbed around his shoulders, taking almost all of Dean's weight as he hauled him to his feet. As soon as Dean was mostly vertical, he felt a hand on his shoulder and Sam was pushing him back towards the wall of the cave. Dean gratefully pressed his shoulder into the rock, allowing it to take some of his weight.

"Alright," Sam said. He sounded a little breathless. If Dean had been in less pain he would have felt almost bad - the last day and a half couldn't have been easy on his brother, and he still wasn't even fully healed himself. "Are you good to just...stand there for a second?"  
"Yeah. Get Cas up."

Sam went through a similar struggle to get Cas sufficiently vertical. Dean hadn't been able to help much, but Cas didn't seem able to help _at all, _and his eyelids barely even flickered as Sam hauled the angel to his feet and draped his arm around his shoulder.

"Ready?" Sam asked, and Dean nodded grimly. Sam slung the duffel over his other shoulder and looked at Dean with expectant sympathy. Dean gritted his teeth and pushed himself off the wall.

The first step was hell. Shooting pains from his ribs traveled through Dean's chest, lacing around his entire torso, mixing with the pain from his stitched wounds and traveling into his recently dislocated shoulder. The next step was worse. Dean thought he might throw up, and then he thought he might pass out. Then, he thought he might do both at the same time.

But he could hear Sam behind him, dragging Cas's deadweight, and he could hear Sam's breathing hitching slightly as the exertion aggravated his own injury. And Dean wasn't going to get his baby brother trapped in the Jurassic, in Utah of all places. So he took another step. And another. And another, until the pain became his normal, and his mind went numb. Dean kept going.


	8. Chapter 8

A/N - This is the last chapter of this, but I have several more stories ready that I will start posting in the next few days!

* * *

Sam shifted Cas's weight, refusing to even acknowledge the pain in his side. He wasn't going to allow it in, not when Dean was struggling to take even a single step.

But although Dean was struggling, he was doing it. Sam hadn't really believed that his brother would even be able to stand, let alone walk. And then Dean had taken his first shaky step since getting bitten by the dinosaur, and he'd just kept going.

Every single one of Dean's ribs was broken, and he still kept going. His shoulder was dislocated, his torso had been ripped apart, and he was _walking_. Sam thought once again that Dean was the strongest person he'd ever known.

Sam shifted Cas again, and the angel moaned slightly. "Cas?" Sam said excitedly, turning towards him.

Cas's head flopped gently down onto Sam's shoulder, but he didn't stir again, and he didn't open his eyes. Sam sighed and continued lugging him onwards.

"He didn't wake up," Sam said sadly to Dean, twisting slightly to see his brother a few steps behind.

Dean nodded tightly, his face a sickly shade of grey. Bright spots of red were beginning to appear on his bandages where the movement had pulled at his stitches.

"Dean?" Sam asked.

Sam watched as Dean missed a step, almost went down, and somehow, miraculously, caught himself. He was shaking so badly now that his teeth were chattering, and Sam wasn't sure he was going to be able to keep moving but then somehow he did.

"I'm alright," Dean whispered, voice trembly and weak. "Keep walking."

They walked for about another ten minutes. They were moving impossibly slowly, more even than when Cas had carried Dean back to the cave after the initial attack. Sam had to fight down waves of anxiety about being out in the open for this long. But there was really nothing that he could do. It wasn't like he could make Dean go faster. And Cas was essentially deadweight at this point - it was all Sam could do to keep upright with the angel tucked against his side.

They had just entered the outer edge of the forest when Sam heard a soft sigh behind him, and then a gentle thump. Sam whipped around, dragging Cas with him. Dean was on his knees, one hand braced on the ground, looking up at Sam with dazed confusion in his eyes.

"Dean!" Sam exclaimed. He lowered Cas to the ground, where he sprawled bonelessly the second Sam let go of him. Sam ran to his brother's side, grabbing Dean's head in one hand and tilting his chin up so he could get a better look at him.

"I'm 'lright," Dean muttered, head heavy in Sam's palm. "Just...needed to rest for a second…."

Sam pressed his other hand against Dean's forehead, checking for fever. Thankfully, there was nothing. Which meant the wounds probably weren't infected, Dean really was just exhausted. Sam made a small noise in the back of his throat. There really wasn't much he could do.

"Can you drink some water?" Sam asked.

Dean shook his head. "I'll throw up," he mumbled.

"I really don't think that's true," he said, letting go of Dean's face and helping his brother sink carefully onto all fours. "You've barely had anything to drink. You're probably really dehydrated, and that's making you feel worse. A few sips of water is only gonna help you, I promise, Dean."

"Yeah," Dean muttered, but Sam wasn't entirely sure if he was agreeing with what Sam had said, or simply acknowledging that he had spoken. It didn't seem like he was paying much attention.

Sam fished around in his backpack and held a water bottle out to Dean. Dean drank gratefully for about one second, and then pushed the bottle back at Sam.

"Come on," Sam said. "A little more."

Dean took another grudging sip. Then, he shook his head, pushing at the water bottle again. Sam put the water back in his pack, regarding Dean with no small amount of worry.

"Let's take a quick rest," Sam said, already expecting the answer. And sure enough, Dean was already shaking his head and trying helplessly to push himself upright.

"No time," Dean gasped. He was pale and shaking, drenched with sweat, breathing harshly, but he didn't stop trying to rise.

"Just a minute," Sam pleaded, pushing at Dean gently, trying to get him to stay still. "Please, Dean, you can barely even breathe."

Dean took another shallow, wheezing inhale and nodded slightly, looking away. Sam thought he saw relief flash quickly through his brother's eyes, but as quickly as it had come, it was replaced by pain. "Minute. No more."

Sam nodded. As much as he wanted to wait until Dean lost that blue tinge around his lips and got some color back in his skin, he knew that they really were running out of time. So when a minute was up, Sam reluctantly turned to his brother. "Dean?"

Dean nodded and held out his hand. Sam helped him to his feet a second time, supporting him with a second hand on his waist, then guiding him to lean against a nearby tree. Sam noted unhappily that this time, he'd had to take even more of Dean's weight to get him standing. Dean was fading.

But there really wasn't anything Sam could do about that, not while they were still in the Jurassic. So he left his brother slumped heavily on a tree and collected Cas, who hadn't moved an inch while Sam had been with Dean. Sam heaved the angel up and rearranged him until he was in the best position possible, then nodded to Dean. They set off once again, although this time, Dean was in front.

* * *

Dean felt like they'd been walking for hours. He knew it couldn't have been that long, though, mostly because he thought that if he'd been walking for hours, he'd have hit the ground for good long ago.

He'd already fallen once, he knew that. But he'd managed to get up after that, something he wasn't sure he'd be able to do if he fell again.

And with every step, he felt more and more like falling. Dean could feel his legs shaking with every step, and now his hands were shaking too. He could feel his fingers trembling distantly, like they weren't really attached to him anymore. That probably wasn't good.

Dean took another shallow breath and suddenly found that it wasn't enough. He tried to take another, and his chest seized and his vision blurred. But he kept stumbling forward, his body working on autopilot.

He wondered where Sam was. Before, Sam had been right in front of him, carrying Cas along with him. Dean had been able to look up and see him, something to aim for. But now, Sam wasn't in front of him and it hurt too much for Dean to look around for him.

And that was when his legs stopped working for the second time. Dean felt himself falling, but he was trapped in his haze of pain and by the time he realized what was happening, it was too late.

Dean hit the ground hard, and what little breath he had escaped him with the impact. He lay there on the forest floor, pine needles digging into his cheek, the world spinning around him in a blur of colors and lights. Somewhere above him, he could hear Sam shouting his name desperately, but he couldn't move. As the world resolved itself into a pure sheet of blackness, the last thing he was aware of was Sam's voice calling him.

* * *

"Oh, god, Dean, please wake up," Sam said desperately, shaking his brother's shoulder. Dean's head lolled across the ground, his eyes flickered under his closed lids, and he did not wake up.

"Dean!" Sam yelled again, and again, nothing happened.

Sam was at a complete loss of what to do. Both Dean and Cas were unconscious now, lying sprawled next to him like they had simply fallen asleep. Sam was kneeling between them, a hand on Dean's shoulder but one eye still on Cas. He knew neither of them was going to be able to walk. He didn't even think either of them would be able to walk with him helping to carry them, and it wasn't like he could support both of them at the same time. The heavy weight was dragging at the wound in his side, and it was all he could do just to keep Cas moving forward.

Sam knew he needed help. He needed...a miracle. Otherwise there was simply no way he could get his brother and his best friend out of this.

And then, Sam heard something that made his blood run cold. The heavy sound of footsteps, of a dinosaur approaching. Sam felt his heart leap into his throat, and even though he knew it was useless, he slipped his angel blade into his palm, holding it out in front of him. He tried to run through everything he had learned about dinosaurs in the past few days, but to be completely honest, it wasn't much. He thought maybe his best bet would be to go for the eyes. An angel blade should be enough to blind a dinosaur, if he could even get the blade that high, if he kept the element of surprise on his side. Or maybe he could even go for the throat, he didn't _think _that dinosaur scales were tough like dragon scales, but he really had no idea….

And then, a few seconds later, a huge head emerged from behind a rocky ridge. Sam staggered to his feet, holding the blade out in front of him in a way he hoped was menacing. The dinosaur in front of him was huge, one of the ones with a long neck. Sam didn't think this kind ate meat, but he really couldn't be completely sure. And anyways, Dean said the stegosaurus didn't eat meet and that had still proven to be quite dangerous.

Sam wished Dean was awake. Dean was much better at dinosaurs than Sam. Dean would know what to do.

But Dean laid unmoving on the ground, face pale and waxy, breathing labored. The dinosaur was close enough that Sam could make out the small curves between each of the blue scales lining its belly, and Dean still didn't stir.

Sam was so focused on Dean that he didn't even realize Cas had woken up until he started talking.

"Gabriel," Cas muttered, and Sam couldn't tell if he was talking to him, to the dinosaur, or to himself.

"Cas?" Sam said without turning his head away from the dinosaur. "Cas, are you awake? What about Gabriel? Cas, there's a dinosaur…."

"Gabriel," Cas mumbled again, and Sam looked back at the angel. Cas's eyes were open, and they were directed hazily at the dinosaur.

"That's Gabriel?" Sam asked. Come to think of it, the pattern on the dinosaur before them did seem somewhat familiar.

"I got through," Cas whispered, and his head flopped sideways slightly.

"Cas?" Sam asked desperately, pushing the angel blade back up his sleeve and dropping down next to the angel. He shook Cas's shoulder, but his friend was well and truly unconscious now, clearly having used the last of his strength to contact Gabriel.

Sam sat back on his heels, one step away from despair. He knew he should feel better, Gabriel was here now, they were closer to their goal now than they had been only a few minutes before, but all of a sudden everything seemed insurmountable. Dean and Cas were both dead to the world, how was he supposed to get them both onto a fucking dinosaur? How was he supposed to make sure they stayed there? How could he communicate with Gabriel if Cas hadn't managed to tell him the location they were heading towards? Sam dropped his head into his hands. All of a sudden, the gravity of their situation was hitting him, and there wasn't anyone who was going to be able to help.

There was a low rumble from directly in front of him, and Sam reluctantly opened his eyes. Gabriel had knelt and lowered his neck to the ground, and it was low enough that Sam thought he could at least heave an unconscious Cas onto the dinosaur.

"One step at a time," he muttered, and hauled Cas upright. If possible, the angel was even more limp than before, and Sam groaned with the effort of supporting Cas's full weight. He dragged Cas over to Gabriel and, after a significant struggle, managed to drape him face down over Gabriel's neck, right above the dinosaur's back.

There was no way Sam would be able to do the same thing to Dean. He wouldn't be able to hold onto Dean, Cas, and Gabriel all at once. Dean was going to have to wake up.

"Please, Dean, come on," Sam whispered, and began shaking his brother's shoulder once again. "_Please._"

* * *

Dean blinked, and Sam's face was above him and Sam's hands were on his shoulders, and then Sam had lifted him partways off the ground and was hugging him tightly to his chest.

"Sammy?" Dean choked out, choosing not to point out quite yet that he couldn't breathe.

Sam broke the hug as quickly as he'd initiated it, lowering Dean gently back to the bed of pine needles he'd fallen on. "Stop scaring me like that, man," he scolded, and his voice held the hint of a joke but his eyes didn't.

"Sorry," Dean mumbled. He swallowed, preparing himself to have to get up and continue the journey. He didn't know if he could. Then, a huge, blurry form behind Sam resolved itself, and he sucked in a sharp breath.

"Dinosaur," he muttered, trying to force his tired eyes to focus better. "Sammy, dinosaur…."

"I know," Sam said. "It's Gabriel. He's here to help us."

"Gabriel?" Dean said quietly, blinking dazedly at the huge dinosaur. It did kind of look like Dino Gabe, but it was hard to be completely sure, because all the dinosaurs kind of looked the same. It also seemed to be just standing there, waiting patiently, which Dean figured was unusual behavior for a dinosaur that wasn't possessed by an angel.

"Yeah," Sam said. "I just need to get you up, and then I'm gonna help you get onto his back, okay? I'll need to hold Cas up, so you can't fall asleep again, but you won't have to walk or anything, at least."

"'Kay," Dean muttered. It was a testament to how exhausted he was that he would rather have just kept lying on the ground than get onto Gabriel's back, despite how cool it would be to actually ride a dinosaur.

"Alright," Sam said. "Up you go."

Dean felt Sam's hands slip under his arms, and then he was being hauled to his feet. For a split second, he was sure his legs were simply going to refuse to take his weight, but then Sam was at his side holding him up, and Dean could take a few steps forward to stumble against Gabriel's huge neck.

Dean focused mostly on not passing out as Sam boosted him onto Gabriel's back. He quickly leaned down and grabbed both hands onto Gabriel's neck, not caring about how stupid it looked. There was no way he was going to be able to balance if he were sitting upright, and he knew Sam would need to focus on Cas. The angel was completely unconscious, draped over the dinosaur's back like a dead body draped over a horse in a Western movie. Dean reached out and touched Cas's hand gently, wanting to feel the angel's body heat and reassure himself that he was, in fact, still alive.

"You good?" he heard Sam ask, and he blinked hard a few times, forcing his vision to clear.

"Yeah," he called back, wishing his voice didn't sound so weak. "Yeah, I'm riding a dino!"

Sam laughed. "Want me to take a picture?"

Dean gasped in excitement, then had to hold on a little tighter to Gabe's neck as the pain increased dramatically. "Yeah!" he said, as loudly as he could manage.

Carefully, he turned his head toward Sam and summoned a weak grin, looking somewhere in the direction of the camera. His vision was still pretty blurry, and he couldn't quite make out Sam's face, much less the phone he was holding.

"I got it," Sam called, and a few seconds later, he was scrambling up to join them on Gabe's neck. He settled down in front of Dean, gripping Cas tightly.

There was a sudden swaying motion, and the dinosaur got up. Dean closed his eyes tightly, trying to get purchase on Gabriel's neck. But the scales were slippery, and then Gabe raised his neck and Dean felt his world tilt.

"Dean!" Sam's hand was on his arm, holding him tightly, and Dean no longer felt quite as unbalanced. "Hold onto me, I can still keep hold of Cas."

"Yeah," Dean mumbled, pushing himself upright as quickly as he could and scooting closer to Sam. He wrapped his arm around Sam's waist, trying to avoid Sam's injured ribs while still holding on securely enough that he wouldn't slide off of Gabe's neck.

Gabe took a step, and Dean hurriedly grabbed onto Sam's belt as the dinosaur moved, jostling Dean against Sam. It was kind of like riding a horse, if the horse was the size of a building, and if every step sent bone rattling vibrations through your body. But as painful as it was, it was still far better than walking.

* * *

Gabriel had been lumbering through the forest for almost ten minutes, and Dean had only made one comment about how cool it was. And that was worrying.

"Still with me?" Sam asked, raising his voice slightly. Dean's grip on him tightened, and Sam felt his brother's head move against his back in what had to be a nod.

"Yeah," Dean answered, and it was a good thing his head was so close to Sam's ear because otherwise, Sam probably wouldn't have heard him.

"I think we're close," Sam told him, and he felt Dean nod again.

"Good."

And that was all. Nothing about how they were riding on a dinosaur, or if Cas was okay. Sam even would have settled for a muttered complaint about having to leave without taking a baby dinosaur back with them, which was a battle he'd been fully prepared to fight. But Dean just fell back into silence.

Sam checked Cas's neck for a pulse. This must have been about the fiftieth time he had done so since Gabriel had shown up, but Cas was so pale and still, and he simply had a hard time believing the angel was still alive if he didn't have a hand on his neck almost constantly.

Cas did still have a pulse. It was alarmingly weak, but that didn't matter. Sam would be able to fix that...somehow. So long as his heart kept beating. That's all that mattered.

"Sammy?" Dean asked weakly. Sam felt his hands tighten convulsively on Sam's sides.

"What is it, Dean?"

"This is pretty cool," Dean whispered, and his voice was horrifyingly weak, almost inaudible. "But I think I might fall asleep soon."

"No, Dean," Sam said quickly. "You _cannot _fall asleep. I told you...I can't keep both you and Cas on, you need to...please just stay awake and keep holding onto me…."

"'Kay," Dean muttered, but Sam felt his head slide farther down his back. A chilling image ran through Sam's mind - what if Dean were to abruptly faint and simply slide right off the back of the dinosaur before Sam could do anything to stop it?

"Gabriel, I don't know if you can understand me, but _please _hurry," Sam said frantically. "Gabriel, please-"

Sam put a steadying hand on Cas's back. He had hoped it would serve a double purpose, he could keep Cas balanced on the dinosaur and make sure he was still breathing at the same time. But it didn't work - the angel's breathing was too weak for Sam to feel it through his shirt, which made him feel worse. What if he had stopped breathing now?

"Sammy," Dean mumbled, head slipping lower again. "I-"

"No, hang on, we're almost there-"

And then Gabriel stepped around a shallow hill, and Sam realized that he recognized where they were. They were at the bend in the river where they had first been sent back in time, where Cas had been dropped in the water. They'd made it.

"Gabriel, Gabriel, let us down," Sam said frantically. He could feel Dean fading against him, and he hoped to avoid his brother completely falling off the dinosaur.

Gabriel stopped, and lowered his neck as he had when they had gotten onto his back. Sam immediately slid onto the ground, then reached his hands up towards Dean.

"Sammy," Dean muttered again. His eyes were closed, his skin waxen.

Sam reached up and grabbed his hands. "Don't worry," he whispered. "I got you."

Dean moaned softly and slid to the side, falling towards Sam. Sam braced himself, and Dean fell right into his waiting arms. Sam hugged his brother tightly to his chest and lowered him to the ground, where he lay without moving,

Sam stood up again, reaching up the dinosaur's neck. Cas was still draped limply over Gabe. Sam grabbed the angel's arms and pulled, catching him as he slithered bonelessly off the dinosaur. Cas was soon crumpled next to Dean, and all that was left to do was wait.

Sam placed a hand on Gabe's neck, feeling a little awkward but unsure how else to bid the dinosaur goodbye. "Thanks," he said fervently, and he hoped the archangel had understood him.

The mighty sauropod's neck muscles rippled in a kind of answer, and Gabriel raised himself off the ground and lumbered away. Sam let himself finally slump to the forest floor in exhaustion, placing one hand on Dean and one hand on Cas. And there they sat, until Sam's vision went black and the world twisted inside out.

* * *

Dean heard voices, a babble of sound twisting above his head, just outside his comprehension. He could pick out Sam's voice, and it sounded worried. Again. Dean didn't like it when Sam was upset, Sam wasn't supposed to be upset if Dean was there. If he was, Dean wasn't doing his job.

"Sammy," Dean mouthed softly, unable to open his eyes or increase his volume.

"Dean?" Sam still sounded distressed, but Dean could tell the edge was gone. There was a sudden increase in pressure on his hand, and Dean realized that Sam was holding it, that he was lying on the floor. The hard, smooth stone floor.

"Back?" Dean whispered, and Sam squeezed his hand again.

"We just got back, yeah," Sam said. "Gabe is here, he's looking over Cas. Then he'll check you out, okay?"

Dean made a small sound that Sam would hopefully recognize as assent, saving his strength for the important question. "Cas?"

"He looks even worse than you, and that's saying something." Gabriel's voice came from further to Dean's left, but the thought of opening his eyes, much less turning his head, made him feel nauseuos. Still, if he had to do it to see that Cas was okay….

Sam's hand on the side of his head stopped him before he'd gotten very far. "Dean, no, lay still. Cas is gonna be fine, okay? Gabe said so."

"'Kay," Dean whispered. He was completely exhausted, and Sammy was telling him to lay still, and suddenly that sounded like a very good idea.

"You're alright," Sam said absentmindedly, stroking his thumb down the back of Dean's hand. Even though his vision was blurry, he could see the worry on Sam's face as he watched Gabriel check over Cas. "You're alright, we're back now, you're going to be fine-"

Dean sighed, and let his eyes close. Sam kept whispering to him, words that meant nothing and yet made Dean feel worlds better all the same.

"That's about all I can do for him," Gabriel suddenly said from somewhere off to Dean's left. "Whatever they hit him with...it really did a number on him. His grace was all weird and shredded. I tried to repair the damage as best I could, but as I'm sure you two are well aware I'm pretty weak right now. You...you did get the plant, right?"

"Cas got it," Sam said from somewhere above Dean. It should be in his jacket pocket.

"Cool. The spell to get me powered up takes a few days to complete, but after that I should be able to heal him completely."

"Days?" Dean muttered.

"We're dealing with grace stuff, this isn't gonna be just a walk in the park. This is complex. And your boy's not in any danger for now, he just needs to sleep. He'll probably wake up sometime today, and just be kinda weak until I can get him healed up all the way."

"Can you do anything for Dean?" Sam asked.

Dean swallowed hard, gearing himself up to say the longest thing he had since he'd been back. "I'm...fine. Don't...heal me. Focus...on...Cas…."

"Goddamnit, Dean," Sam said. "That's ridiculous. I don't know if you've noticed, but you're still at risk of _dying, _okay? Let Gabriel do whatever work he can on you, and stop complaining about it."

Dean blinked up at Sam. Everything did still hurt rather a lot, so he thought it might be best not to argue.

He felt a small shifting next to him, and then Gabriel was much closer.

"I can't heal him completely," Gabriel muttered, sounding uncharacteristically serious. "Not right after saving your pet angel. But I can make him more comfortable, at least."

Dean felt a touch at his forehead, and his breathing instantly eased. The pain that had made it difficult to even form a coherent thought receded, and he relaxed into the ground.

"Oh," he whispered.

"Does that feel a little better?" Sam said, and Dean couldn't see his face but he could tell just from his voice that he was smiling.

"Mmm," Dean whispered. "Sleepy."

"Just rest now," Sam said. "Me and Gabriel will get you into bed, somehow…."

Dean knew it was stupid to fall asleep on the floor, especially when Cas was still so badly hurt, when Sam might need his help….

But he didn't need to be told twice. He let himself slip into unconsciousness.

* * *

Cas braced himself for the pain, and found with confusion that it wasn't there. There was still a bone deep ache, but the constant ragged feeling was gone. He shifted slightly, to reassure himself that it wouldn't immediately return, and found that he was lying on something soft.

"I think he's waking up-"

"Cas? Can you hear us?"

Slowly, the words filtered through his exhausted brain, gaining meaning. Sam and Dean. Cas opened his eyes, automatically blinking against the blurriness. But his eyes focused for what felt like the first time in forever, and he could see his surroundings clearly.

He was in the room in the bunker he'd claimed for his own, lying buried in blankets on the bed. Sam and Dean were seated in chairs beside his bed.

"Hey, buddy," Dean said with a grin, leaning carefully forward and squeezing Cas's shoulder. "Finally decided to wake up?"

Cas stared at Dean in amazement. In the last image he had of the older Winchester, Dean had barely been able to function, pain clouding his mind. But now, although he was still fairly pale, and Cas could see heavy bandages peeking out from beneath his shirt, he seemed much more himself.

"You're better?" Cas asked, quietly thrilled to be able to speak with relative ease.

"Yeah, Gabe helped some," Dean said. "How are _you_?"

"Also better," Cas answered with a small smile. "Much, actually."

"Sure slept long enough," Dean muttered. "Like two days. We were starting to wonder if you were ever gonna drag your lazy ass out of bed."

Sam rolled his eyes slightly. "We were worried, Cas. We're glad you're feeling better."

"Like I said," Dean said. Then, suddenly, his face changed, all trace of humor gone. Cas looked at him worriedly, wondering what Dean was leading up to.

"I just have one more question," Dean said, lowering his voice slightly.

"...what is it?" Cas asked warily.

Dean leaned forward intently. "Were you, or were you not, ever a dinosaur?"


End file.
